Contribute your Compute, Cultivate the Commons.
Help with computing projects you choose, under rules you set. Your personal PoliC is your permission slip—not the Commons' permission to take over your computer.
Catnap in three steps.
Your rules come first. Choose the Cat creators you trust, choose your limits, and preview your PoliC. Enrollment and starting Catnap are two separate choices; neither happens automatically.
What exactly happens when I start?
Today's browser pilot runs only approved SHA-256 hashing tasks inside a JavaScript Web Worker. The browser checks the task signature and your PoliC before doing work; a matching Cat must be available. The browser does not download or execute a Cat's arbitrary container code.
Who decides which projects I work for?
You do. The Commons operator approves Cats, but you separately trust creator keys. Trust in a creator also covers their future approved Cats that satisfy your other policy conditions. Categories and purposes are self-declared by creators, not independently audited.
Your resources, your limits. Computing uses CPU time, electricity and generates heat. Future GPU workloads could also use GPU memory (VRAM), but this browser pilot does not use your GPU for tasks. The browser's CPU slider offers an easy preference, not a guaranteed hardware limit.
What can resource controls enforce?
Browser pacing is best-effort and cannot guarantee a CPU percentage, temperature, power cap or GPU memory limit. The current native Docker Catbox has a fixed CPU/memory cap and runs the same hashing pilot; configurable GPU workloads and VRAM sliders are not implemented yet.
What information leaves my computer?
Enrollment sends a browser nickname, your PoliC and an authentication token to the Commons. Work sends lease requests and results. The pilot does not ask to read local files. The Commons may retain task receipts, even after you revoke consent.
A website cannot install or run Docker on your computer. Browser Catnap cannot run arbitrary containers, perform native GPU tasks or continue after the tab closes. To run an isolated local Catbox, download PoliC@home and start its Docker worker yourself. Automatic negotiation of arbitrary Catboxes is a future goal, not a current feature.
The optional Gibson screensaver and other scenes offer a visual account of the Commons, in the tradition of earlier @home projects. Opening the visualizer does not contribute compute.
Can I stop at any time?
Yes. Pause stops browser work. Revoke Consent also withdraws this node's authorization at the Commons once revocation is confirmed. Closing the tab stops browser computation, but does not revoke enrollment. For a local Catbox, use the documented stop, revoke and remove commands.
Is Catnap paid?
No payment is promised, and compensation or income is not guaranteed. The longer-term aim is a protocol for accountable mutual prosperity: Cat creators and Catbox contributors could publish transparent terms, matched against each contributor's PoliC and accepted through informed, enthusiastic collaboration. Payments and economic matching are not available in today's browser pilot.
Nothing starts by visiting. Browser work can consume electricity and produce heat; you can pause or revoke your consent.
Explore @home screensaver options The graphics do not donate compute.
These are illustrations of the Commons. Until you enroll, any activity displayed is explicitly synthetic preview data. Opening this section does not start Catnap.
Give the Commons something to do.
Describe a project, generate an Ed25519 signature inside your browser, and submit the Cat for human review. Catboxes are execution sandboxes; no submitted code is executed simply because it was uploaded.
Creates an executable manifest only for the existing trusted sha256_chain_v1 operation. OCI/GPU/general workloads still require separately reviewed Catbox artifacts and are not launched by this form.
Creators declare how their Cat may operate. Each Catnap contributor independently determines whether it meets their constitution. Approval does not compel a machine to accept work.
The signature is generated with an origin-bound, non-exportable private key stored in this browser's IndexedDB when available. Clearing site data can lose that identity. Preserve the signed export and public signer key.
Generate your first Cat to display a public signer key.
Trust is an explicit action.
Restricted operator tools for invitations and staging review. Never share the administrator credential with ordinary Catnap participants or project creators.
No invitations generated.
Connect the operator to view the submission queue.
Get the source · Run your own Commons
Bring PoliC@home home.
Download a source snapshot, inspect or modify it, and run your own independent PoliC@home coordinator. Downloading does not enroll your machine in Catnap or grant this server access to your resources.
How to pause, revoke and remove everything you run. Browser Catnap needs no Docker installation. A Docker Catbox needs an explicit local shell command; this web page cannot remotely start it.
The ZIP is a source snapshot, not a Git clone with commit history. Run commands locally; do not paste operator tokens into this web page. Hosting a Commons and contributing compute are separate opt-in actions.
unzip PoliCatHome-source.zip cd PoliCatHome-source python3 -m venv .venv . .venv/bin/activate python -m pip install -e . export POLYC_ADMIN_TOKEN="$(python -c 'import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(36))')" polyc serve --db runtime/browser.sqlite --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8765
Then open http://127.0.0.1:8765/. For public hosting, read the security guidance first: the development server should not be exposed directly to the Internet.