How it works

Hummingbird is being built in phases, starting with the institution before the interaction.

1. Phase 0 — Foundation (complete). Repository, documentation, minimal site, CI, deployment.
2. Phase 1 — Public Charter Site (current). This site: mission, Charter (working draft, C0), transparency philosophy, changelog, security contact. No accounts, no voting, no application-managed payments or financial-governance workflows yet — the interim voluntary support address is separate from Phase 5 and confers no standing.
3. Phase 2 — Read-only commons. Public views of contributions, proposals, needs, and decisions once they exist.
4. Phase 3 — Controlled participation. Contribution and proposal forms, with rate limits and abuse controls added first.
5. Phase 4 — Governance workflows. Proposals, disputes, validated needs, decisions.
6. Phase 5 — Financial support. Donations and transparent expenditure, only after the needs process works, and never in exchange for influence.

Every technical and governance decision of consequence is recorded in the project's public Architecture Decision Records once the repository itself is public.