Our approach
Comfyware
principles.
Software for a family, an extended family, or a group of friends who want somewhere of their own. The people using it should be the people it serves and the people who run it.
Comfyware brings together the personal spirit of the IndieWeb, the control of self-hosting, and a focus on small communities. A family album, a shared notebook, or a board for the Sunday regulars can have its own customs and a familiar face at the door.
Trust comes from a community with a shared context, governed by the people actually in it. “Software you’d let your kids use” means a place operated by people you trust, under rules you understand. Each family decides which places suit them; each community establishes its own rules and culture.
Local sovereignty
The host and community establish their own house rules. They decide who can join, what gets shared, and how they want to look after their space.
The software should make those choices understandable and give the people running the place practical ways to uphold them. Local control needs clear settings, deliberate sharing, and tools that respect the choices people have already made.
Human-scale governance
An identifiable person or small group takes responsibility for the place. Members should know who runs it and how to raise a concern.
Clear responsibilities, membership controls, and useful moderation tools support that relationship. Looking after a community should stay understandable to the people who belong to it.
No engagement imperative
Your attention belongs to you. The software has no economic interest in making people angry, addicted, or perpetually present.
Keep distraction low. No recommendation algorithms, ranked feeds, infinite scroll, streaks, popularity scores, or pressure to return. Conversations stay chronological and pages have an end. Notifications, when added, should be optional and controlled by the person receiving them.
Come back when you want to. The conversation will still be there.
Bounded community
The purpose is a place for your people: friends, family, or another group with a shared context. A useful conversation, a plan coming together, or a memory kept safe matters more than audience size.
Growth and reach are not measures of success. An open community can welcome newcomers while keeping a clear purpose and hosts who take responsibility for the place.
Exit and ownership
Being able to take your data is a core requirement. People should be able to keep their contributions, and communities should be able to move their shared place.
Keep hosting understandable, backups practical, and exports useful outside the application. Preserve the material and the relationships that give it meaning: which replies belong to a conversation, which images go with a memory, and who was meant to see them.
An export should remain useful after the original server is gone. Ownership includes the freedom to leave.
Your community’s own judgment
Provide moderation and governance tools while leaving house rules to hosts and members. Communities get to decide what they consider acceptable and what sort of place they want to make.
Trust rests on knowing the people and understanding the rules of the place you’ve joined. Different communities will make different choices. The software helps them administer those choices.
What we build toward
These principles guide the tools we build and the features we choose. Every new feature should earn its place by serving the people using it, respecting their attention, and keeping control in their hands.
Personal, private, and open spaces change who can participate. They all deserve the same care, local control, and freedom to move on.