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Plan · mission north star

SkybraryThe Sky Library

Protect the future of humanity by building the Sky Library — a resilient, open, catastrophe-aware archive and distribution system for the written knowledge of civilization. Online for those who can reach the web. Offline for schools, clinics, villages, and disaster zones via SkyCache.

Honest scope: maximal feasible open heritage is the north star. We never claim a complete archive of every text ever written. We never claim free commercial broadband.

Why it matters

Knowledge is civilizational infrastructure. Centralized digital stores can vanish to war, censorship, infrastructure collapse, solar storms, bit rot, or neglect. Communities with little reliable internet already live at that edge. Skybrary exists so open literature, science, history, philosophy, medicine, and education remain enduringly reachable — not locked behind a single cloud region or paid constellation.

Foundation: SkyCache today

  • Python 3.11+ · FastAPI · SQLite · multi-language offline PWA
  • Prioritizer: Emergency → Health → Education … under disk pressure
  • Nexus fabric: mesh, DTN, USB mules, opportunistic open gateway
  • Receive-only RF · unlicensed mesh TX · Apache-2.0 · community ownership
  • Community UX 0.4: search, boards, ratings, license inventory

Architecture pillars

Open written knowledge

Public domain, Creative Commons, government open, and authorized corpora only — with provenance.

Dual access

Excellent online portal for the connected; first-class offline packs for SkyCache nodes and USB mules.

Prioritized offline

Constrained storage gets the highest-value knowledge first. Survival content never loses to entertainment.

Distribution fabric

Web, USB, mesh/DTN, opportunistic legal gateways — and future open receive-only deltas where lawful.

Legal & honest

No copyright infringement. No free-Starlink claims. No “complete archive of everything.”

Built on SkyCache

Extends the Apache-2.0 field stack you already have — Nexus mesh, prioritizer, PWA — not a rewrite.

Dual access

Online

Mobile-first portal for connected readers: browse open works, understand the mission, download legal pack profiles. Live sample catalog →

Offline

SkyCache nodes, USB data mules, mesh/DTN, and prioritized packs on low-cost Pi-class hardware — first-class, not an afterthought.

Phased plan

  1. S0

    Mission lock

    Now

    Vision, architecture, roadmap, AGENTS.md — shared language and legal rails.

  2. S1

    Scaffold + PD samples

    Scaffolding

    Work models, license gate, checksums, curated public-domain sample packs on nodes.

  3. S2

    Works catalog + FTS

    Live (0.5)

    Work/Edition schema, SQLite FTS5, faceted Library tab, CLI skybrary search.

  4. S3

    Pack profiles + full legal surface

    Live (0.6)

    Size-bounded kits, capability matrix, open HTTPS allowlist, verify, handoff mule, legal RF modes.

  5. S4

    Online catalog UX

    Live (preview)

    Public /library/ portal: static sample catalog search, pack profile list, CLI get-started — dual access online half.

  6. S5–S7

    Scale · preserve · open RX

    Horizon

    Corpus pipelines, integrity federation, optional receive-only open satellite deltas — never commercial decrypt.

Legal expansion paths (honest)

We expand only through lawful decode of free-to-air / open signals, open corpus ingest, and unlicensed or operator-licensed mesh — never commercial constellation piracy. See GitHub docs/legal-pathways-rf-and-content.md for the full brainstorm of legal RX/TX and authorized decrypt-with-keys paths.

Non-negotiables

  • Public domain / open / authorized content only — track provenance
  • Receive-only satellite RF; no commercial decrypt; no “free Starlink”
  • Unlicensed/ISM mesh only where national rules allow
  • Apache-2.0 software; respect third-party corpus licenses
  • Offline-first prioritization; local maintainer ownership
  • No over-claim of a complete civilization dump

Read the full design

On GitHub: docs/VISION-SKYBRARY.md, docs/skybrary-architecture.md, docs/skybrary-roadmap.md, AGENTS.md

# Full legal surface (software 0.6+)
python -m skycache capabilities
python -m skycache skybrary samples --ingest
python -m skycache skybrary search liberty
python -m skycache skybrary pack --profile literacy-1gb
python -m skycache serve --sim
# Portal: Library tab · Admin: capability matrix