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Show-Readiness Map

For current project truth, defer to `docs/STATE.md` and `docs/PHASE_PROGRESS.md`. This map describes what is show-ready — the line between what is honest to demonstrate and what should not be presented as finished.

This document is the load-bearing one for outside-facing conversations. Anyone presenting ICN to organizers, cooperative developers, technically curious contributors, or grant reviewers should walk this list before the meeting.

What can be shown now

These are real and may be presented honestly:

  • The project thesis. ICN is digital public infrastructure for cooperatives, communities, and federations. It is a constraint engine: apps translate meaning into constraints; the kernel enforces constraints without understanding meaning. (See `docs/architecture/THE_COMMONS.md` and `docs/genesis.md`.)
  • The public site. `intercooperative.network` — including What is ICN, What's Real Now, For Cooperatives, and Get Involved.
  • The current proof-loop story. Decision → action → receipt is real, end-to-end, for the three currently emitted action-card source paths (proposal/vote, action_item/complete, meeting/attend). Both locally and on K3s.
  • Roadmap truth. Phase 0 done, Phase 1 done, Phase 2 in progress. Phase 2 machinery in place; remaining work is human procedure. (`docs/PHASE_PROGRESS.md`, `docs/STATE.md`, `docs/strategy/ICN-Roadmap-Live.md`.)
  • NYCN as the intended first cooperative partner. Active partnership track. Drive-ingest operator ladder is merged end-to-end on the NYCN side; ICN-side proof paths are documented. The next step is presenting the merged ladder + proof-loop machinery to NYCN organizers.
  • Member-facing standing / action-card / receipt concept. The shapes are real and exercised. Show the surfaces (`runtime-surface-map.md`) and the proof-path docs.
  • Documentation control plane. Honest, auditable, versioned: hand-maintained INDEX.md, machine-readable registry.toml, generated DOCUMENT_REGISTRY.md, validator in CI, regulatory-compliance linter on the avoid list. (`docs-control-map.md`.)
  • Substrate maturity claims. ~75% implementation, current test counts as reported in `docs/STATE.md`, 35 library crates + 4 runtime apps + 3 binaries, K3s deployment running since 2025-12-03. State these as written; do not extrapolate.

What should not be shown as finished

These are real things that exist in the repo but are not in a finished state. Do not present them as production capabilities.

  • A live production cooperative network. ICN runs on a homelab K3s cluster. There is no live multi-cooperative production deployment. Members do not currently log in to a hosted cooperative on ICN.
  • A formal NYCN pilot. NYCN is the intended first cooperative partner. There is no signed partnership, no committed launch date, no formal pilot agreement. The relationship is in good faith and active, not formal.
  • Live federation integration. No two cooperatives currently federate over ICN in production. The federation primitives exist as code; the cross-org coordination story is Phase 3 in `docs/PHASE_PROGRESS.md`, not Phase 2.
  • One-click / non-technical deployment. Phase 2 deliverables for one-command per-coop deployment, charter customization workflow, and pilot onboarding guide are not yet shipped.
  • A complete mobile app. The React Native SDK and mobile member-app work exist. The mobile UX spec is at `docs/mobile/icn-mobile-ux-spec-v1.md`. Treat it as a build-facing spec, not a shipped product.
  • Action-card runtime as fully expanded. Two RFC-gated source paths (signal_rule, obligation_lifecycle) are pending under #1646. Show three of five, not five of five.
  • K3s teardown semantics as designed. Smoke artifacts persist on the cluster; namespaced teardown is not yet specified (#1679).

Suggested first-demo narrative

A short, honest, non-pitch-shaped narrative for first conversations:

  1. ICN is institutional infrastructure for democratic organizations — cooperatives, communities, federations. It is not a platform, not a marketplace, not a token economy.
  2. It helps democratic organizations turn decisions into auditable action. A decision generates an action card; completing the action generates an append-only receipt; that receipt can be retrieved over HTTP and is portable.
  3. A member sees their standing, their scope, their action cards, and their receipts through real endpoints. The proof loop is end-to-end on three currently emitted source paths, both locally and on K3s.
  4. NYCN is the intended first real-world rehearsal track. Active partnership track. The drive-ingest operator ladder walks an organizer's drive content into ICN action-item proofs without requiring a live federation step.
  5. The next step is organizer presentation and pilot formalization. Phase 2 machinery is in place; the remaining gate is human procedure, not engineering.

Lean toward "show, then explain" rather than "explain, then show": real surfaces beat slide decks for outside readers.

Red lines

These are language or framing choices that should never appear in any external-facing material — slides, write-ups, posts, demos.

Red line Why it matters
No crypto / web3 / token framing. ICN has no token, no native currency, no speculative instruments. Mutual credit is bilateral. Receipts are evidentiary, not tradable assets. Regulatory framing; doctrine (`THE_COMMONS.md`, `genesis.md`).
No financial-product framing. ICN is not a payment system, not a fintech app, not a banking layer. The vocabulary that matters: settlement, unit, identity, position, obligation, allocation. Avoid: payment, currency, wallet, balance. Regulatory framing; CI's Regulatory Compliance Linter enforces this.
No NYCN commitment claim. Do not represent NYCN as a launched, formal, or signed pilot. Truthfulness; partnership is active but not formalized.
No live-federation claim. No two cooperatives are federating in production. Truthfulness; this is Phase 3, not Phase 2.
No "platform landlord" aesthetics. ICN is not a SaaS, not a hosted product, not "let us run it for you." It is infrastructure cooperatives stand up themselves or with a cooperative developer. Doctrine (`THE_COMMONS.md` §Non-Goals).
No production-readiness claim across the substrate. Some surfaces are mature; many are uneven; the pilot machinery is in place but unrehearsed at scale. Truthfulness; do not generalize from the strongest parts.
No "this replaces governance / legal / financial professionals" claim. ICN provides infrastructure for what those people and institutions choose to do; it does not replace them. Truthfulness, dignity.

Internal review checklist before an outside-facing event

  • Does the deck / page / talk represent Phase 2 as in progress (not complete)?
  • Does it represent NYCN as the intended first cooperative partner (not a committed pilot)?
  • Does it avoid the vocabulary in the avoid list?
  • Does it avoid token / web3 / financial-product framing?
  • Does it represent action-card runtime as three of five currently emitted source paths (not five of five)?
  • Does it represent the K3s deployment as homelab-class (not production multi-tenant)?
  • If it claims a number (LOC, tests, crates, phases), does that number come from STATE.md / PHASE_PROGRESS.md?

Where to read deeper

Topic Doc
Doctrine — what ICN is for `docs/architecture/THE_COMMONS.md`
Doctrine — what is immutable in the substrate `docs/genesis.md`
Public site copy as canonical "what we say" `intercooperative.network`
Current truth (per-PR record) `docs/STATE.md`
Phase model `docs/PHASE_PROGRESS.md`
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