The document stack is fragmented.
It doesn't have to be.
Text, tables, decks, games, anything: a tile is one file that does what all of those do, because it brings its own editor along. Open it in ten years and it still knows how to edit itself.
Documents that carry their own editor
Self-editing
A tile packs content and editor together, addressed by cryptographic fingerprint. If the fingerprint matches, nothing has tampered with your document since it was written, and no app upgrade can orphan it.
Any document can become a model: the editor without its data, a fresh starting point you keep in your library.
Local-first
Your documents are files on your machine. No cloud required, no account required, nothing phones home. Ziran works entirely offline; the network is something you opt into, one document at a time.
Safe by construction
Tiles run in strict isolation: a document can edit itself, and that is all it can do. It never sees your other documents, your identity, or the network. The runtime holds the keys — tiles never do.
Together, without a middleman that reads
Go live on any document and invite people by their AT handle, the identity they already have. Accepting downloads the document to their machine first; then it syncs, live.
- End-to-end encrypted. Live sessions use MLS group encryption. The relay orders and stores ciphertext. It can never read your documents.
- Roles the document defines. An editor, a reviewer, one chess opponent and any number of watchers: each document declares its roles and enforces what they mean.
- Everyone keeps a real copy. Collaboration is between copies you each own, not access to someone else's server. Leave any time; your document stays yours.
Get Ziran
Ziran is a desktop app: one small download, everything included.
The first public build is being prepared. In the meantime, Ziran is being built in the open; follow along at berjon.com.