How Mandala fits together

A few words carry the whole product. Learn them once and every other page reads easily.

                ┌──────────────────────── your identity (you) ────────────────────────┐
                │                                                                      │
  your iPhone ──┤   home node (Mac, home server or VPS)        other nodes (your Mac…)  │
  your browser ─┤   ┌──────────────────────────────────┐       ┌────────────────────┐  │
                │   │ Workspace app      your accomplice │ sync  │ same records,      │  │
                │   │ Goethe vaults      DHL engine     │◄─────►│ same vaults        │  │
                │   └──────────────────────────────────┘       └────────────────────┘  │
                └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                │ delegation (acting for)        signed exchange
                    organisations you own (Acme Trading) ◄────────────► other businesses
                    spaces you share (the House)

The words

Node — one running Mandala: a single program, mandala, with its data directory. A node can be your Mac, a home server or a VPS.

Home — the node where your identity was created and that is always reachable. Other nodes join it and sync.

Identity — who acts and owns things. There are four kinds: a person (you), an organisation (a company you own), a space (a household you share) and an agent (your accomplice, or a company's assistant). See Identities.

Accomplice — the AI that works with you. It is an identity of its own, run by you, and it acts only under what you allowed. See Your accomplice.

Vault — a folder of Markdown documents that Goethe understands: types, links, tasks, views. Each identity can have its own vault. This manual is a vault too. See Knowledge.

Contract — a DHL file that describes one kind of record (an invoice, a shopping list) and the actions that change it. The engine refuses anything a contract does not allow. See DHL concepts.

Record — one thing a contract governs: one invoice, one list. Every change to it is signed by whoever made it.

Delegation — a signed grant that lets one identity act for another, within a scope and until an end date. It is how you act for your company, and how your accomplice acts for you. See Delegation.

Approval — a card your accomplice shows before an action that matters (sending an email, paying). You decide with a tap or in your own words. See Approvals.

One program

Everything above runs in one executable, as one service: the web app, the accomplice, Goethe, the DHL engine and the sync between your devices. There is no database server to run and no helper daemons. See Architecture.