Potato — Open Source Governance Framework

An open-source governance framework that allows communities to build transparent and collaborative political movements.

Governance documents — constitutions, policy manifestos, bylaws, proposals — are stored as version-controlled text files. Changes are proposed as pull requests, reviewed by contributors, validated by automated checks, and merged when they reach consensus.

This is a civic infrastructure experiment. It is not a registered political party and not legal advice.

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flowchart LR
    A([Community idea]) --> B[GitHub Issue]
    B --> C[Draft Proposal]
    C --> D[Pull Request + CI]
    D --> E[Community Review]
    E --> F{Consensus?}
    F -- Yes --> G[Merged to Policy]
    F -- No --> H[Revised or Archived]

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Start here

I want to...	Go to
Understand how the system works	docs/how_to_participate.md
Build a new governance instance	INSTANCE_GUIDE.md
Propose a policy idea	Open a Policy Proposal issue
Try a starter experiment	docs/experiments/
Read the Canada manifesto	instances/canada/manifesto/
Understand the governance rules	docs/governance/
See where the project is going	ROADMAP.md

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How it works

1. Framework + instances The repository is split into a universal framework (core/) and community-specific governance instances (instances/). The framework provides templates and tooling. Instances provide the democratic content.

2. Ideas start as issues Open a GitHub Issue using one of the templates. Describe a policy problem, raise a question, or start a governance debate. No technical background needed.

3. Issues become proposals Structured proposals follow the template in core/proposal_system/. They describe the problem, the mechanism, the costs, and the rights questions. Anyone can write one.

4. Proposals become pull requests A PR against an instance's manifesto/ or governance/ is how a proposal actually changes canonical policy. Opening a PR triggers automated checks.

5. Automated checks run on every PR

Markdown lint          → are required headings present?
Proposal validation    → does the template have all sections?
Compliance check       → are there potential rights conflicts to flag?
Policy consistency     → does this contradict existing policy?

6. Merge When a proposal passes checks and reaches reviewer consensus, a Maintainer merges it. The commit history is the permanent audit trail.

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Repository layout

core/
  manifesto_template/   universal article structure and templates
  governance_protocol/  how governance processes work
  proposal_system/      how proposals are submitted and reviewed
  governance_cycles/    how policy evolves through iterative cycles

instances/
  canada/               Peoples Potato Party of Canada (reference implementation)
    manifesto/          Canadian policy articles
    governance/         → see docs/governance/ (canonical location)

civic_infrastructure/   universal civic technology addendums
docs/
  experiments/          open policy questions and interaction experiments
  governance/           Canada instance constitution and bylaws
  adr/                  Architecture Decision Records
  how_to_participate.md
  governance_roles.md
scripts/                CI validation scripts
.github/
  workflows/            automated governance checks
  ISSUE_TEMPLATE/       guided issue submission templates
AGENTS.md               AI agent collaboration contract
ARCHITECTURE.md         system design and diagrams
INSTANCE_GUIDE.md       how to build a new governance instance
ROADMAP.md              development phases

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Try the experiments

Not ready to propose a full policy change? Start in docs/experiments/. These are open questions with structured debate spaces — lower stakes than amending the manifesto, and designed for first-time contributors.

• Digital Referendums — should communities have citizen-initiated referendums?
• Housing Policy — what combination of measures reduces unaffordability without displacement?
• Energy Strategy — how should a community manage an energy transition fairly?

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Build your own instance

Fork this repository and follow INSTANCE_GUIDE.md to create a governance instance for your own community. The Canada instance (instances/canada/) is a complete worked example.

Any community can use this framework: a political party, a civic movement, a residents' association, a cooperative, or any group that wants to make collective decisions through an open, auditable process.

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Contributing

See docs/how_to_participate.md for the full guide. The short version:

1. Open an issue or comment on an existing one
2. Copy core/proposal_system/proposal_template.md to your instance's proposals/ directory
3. Fill in the required sections
4. Open a PR — CI checks run automatically
5. Respond to reviewer comments and revise

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AI collaboration

This repository is designed for human contributors and AI agents working together. The operational contract for AI agents lives in AGENTS.md.

Agents assist with documentation, review analysis, and governance validation. They do not merge PRs, do not change constitutional meaning without explicit human approval, and must label their contributions clearly.

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License

Repository contents are licensed under the MIT License unless a file states otherwise.

The MIT License does not grant rights to party names, logos, slogans, or other branding. See TRADEMARKS.md.

Forks and derivatives are welcome, but they must not imply official status, endorsement, or affiliation with the Peoples Potato Party of Canada.