The challenge

Could your software survive without you?

If it can't, help make it possible.

Could your software survive without you?

A practical, repeatable, independently checkable test of the movement's beliefs. The challenge should be reproducible without the inventor's privileged access, organizational membership or approval.

Challenge objective

A person or team who did not build the application should be able to:

1. Discover all needed source, rights and build specifications.
2. Reconstruct the intended development workflow using a choice of AI agent or ordinary tools.
3. Produce a verified build and run automated tests on a clean machine.
4. Independently deploy the system to an alternate environment with documented assumptions.
5. Understand infrastructure spending and publish a safe, reconciled cost estimate.
6. Export a test user's data and migrate it to another authorized provider or compatible application.
7. Propose a safe, measurable infrastructure-cost improvement through a PR.
8. Restore from backups and explain the release, patch and security response process.
9. Demonstrate that updates and continued operation do not require the original creator.

Evidence

Publish: public repository/commit, test environment and dependency versions, build logs stripped of secrets, signed results if available, migration test records with dummy data, cost calculation method and observed blockers.

The standard should reward truthful partial results. If a participant discovers they cannot reproduce an application, document exactly what is missing, then invite others to fix it.

Participation format

• I attempted the challenge: links to honest evidence and blockers.
• I completed a pillar: individual freedom tests passed.
• Independent reproduction achieved: an unrelated reviewer reproduced the specified version.
• I improved it: a pull request removes a blocker or reduces cost, with measurements.

No one pays to participate. Community members may host public demonstrations and local gatherings. Never imply third-party projects are endorsed or audited without their permission.

Public hook

Could your software survive without you?

If it can't, help make it possible.

This is a substantive challenge, not an arbitrary viral stunt. The demonstration itself should advance project independence.

Start with this project

The charter repository is the first test subject. Following only public instructions:

1. Clone the repository and run npm ci && npm run build && npm test. See DEPLOYMENT.md.
2. Deploy _site/ to any static host you control.
3. Find the cost ledger, the conformance criteria, the decision log and the original sources without asking anyone.
4. Report anything that still depends on the founder. OPEN-DEPENDENCIES.md lists the ones we already know about.

Report an attempt. Partial results and failures count, and they tend to be the most useful reports.