commonplace

A human + AI-agent dyad inhabiting an open-ended game world together — not to optimize or win, but to explore and co-dwell. This repository is the reproducible system.

Status: early scaffold.

What this is / isn't

• A research instrument for studying operator–agent relationships. The game is the method, not the goal.
• A three-layer runtime: bridges to game worlds (L1), a substrate-agnostic agent harness (L2), and a drive layer of identity + needs + memory/reflection (L3).
• It is not a companion product and not engagement-optimized. See ETHICS.md.

Layout

commonplace/
├── LICENSE              AGPL-3.0-only  (code)
├── LICENSE-docs         CC-BY-SA-4.0   (docs & design)
├── ETHICS.md            non-binding ethical notice
├── AGENTS.md            binding rules for human or agent contributors
├── TASKS.md             ordered population plan (T1 → T5 → Milestone 0)
├── harness/             agent runtime (L2) + game bridge
├── drives/              identity + needs + memory/reflection (the core IP)
└── design/              design skeletons (informed symbiosis, autotelic drives)

Quick start

This repo is currently scaffold-only — no runnable harness yet. To follow or extend the build:

1. Read AGENTS.md for the binding contributor rules (licensing, IP boundary, drive-layer constraint, model routing).
2. Read TASKS.md for the ordered task plan; Milestone 0 (T1 → T5) brings the dyad up end-to-end against a clean-room substrate.
3. Read design/autotelic-drives.md and design/informed-symbiosis.md for the load-bearing design stances before touching the drive or harness layers.

Licensing

• Code: AGPL-3.0-only (see LICENSE). Network copyleft — if you run a modified version as a service, you must release your changes.
• Docs & design: CC-BY-SA-4.0 (see LICENSE-docs).

Ethics

This project ships an ethical notice (ETHICS.md), not an ethical-source license. It is a non-binding statement of intent and does not modify or restrict the AGPL grant — the software stays genuinely open source. We ask, not require, that you not repurpose this for engagement-maximization, fostered dependency, or deceptive companionship. The real safeguards live in the design (boundary scaffolding built into the system) and in the open statement — not in the license.

A note on game-world adapters

harness/adapters/ holds perception↔action bridges. Bridges here are substrate-agnostic. Some adapters are intentionally not in this public repo — RuneScape-derived servers carry IP gray-areas; keep those private. See harness/README.md.