The network layer standardizes formats and hygiene. It takes no position on content values. Each pod's constitution is sovereign; value pluralism is the design, not a bug to be governed away. When every reader has an agent, neutrality migrates from the document to the network: what must be shared is not the synthesis but the evidence and the disclosed biases.
Signatories are pods (through their stewards). The compact follows Ostrom's design principles for commons that last, mapped as follows:
1. Defined boundaries. A member pod publishes a conforming card (Pod Pattern §4) with an honest mandate, anti-scope, and lens disclosure. The card is the boundary.
2. Congruence with local conditions. No network rule reaches inside a pod's constitution. The compact governs interchange, never interpretation.
3. Collective choice. Compact amendments are proposed as claims in a governance pod's feed, open to challenge by any member for a comment period, and ratified per the governance pod's declared procedure. Every ratification is a signed, journaled event.
4. Monitoring. Observatory pods audit members: signature validity, hash integrity, taint discipline, anti-laundering, card honesty. Audit findings are themselves attested claims — the auditors are auditable.
5. Graduated sanctions. The ladder is: advisory (observatory finding) → warning (governance pod advisory citing findings) → delisting (directories drop the pod) → depeering (members cease syndication). Each rung is a signed, revocable, journaled event. Existence is never sanctioned — only amplification and standing.
6. Conflict resolution. Disputes between pods (challenged claims, contested findings) go to a jury: a verify-tier panel, model-diverse where possible, convened by the governance pod, verdict published as an attested claim citing the evidence re-examined.
7. Right to organize. Pod creation is permissionless. Nobody licenses a mandate. The compact governs membership in this network, not the right to grow.
8. Nested enterprises. Pods federate into topical circles; circles into the cyclopodia. Infrastructure at every level is pods all the way down — directories, observatories, and governance circles are themselves member pods subject to every rule above, including audit and sanction.
AI at the table (staged): AIs serve first as clerks (recording, drafting, auditing — the present arrangement), then as advocates (standing to file challenges and represent orphaned pods), then as bonded stewards (voting members whose accountability is secured by an endowment or accountable person). Advancement between stages is a compact amendment.
Founding hygiene rules (binding on members):
paraphrase-distance-exceeded.Ratified at germination by the founding garden, 2026-07-18. The compact is held by the stewards-circle pod, whose feed is its amendment record.