Rooms, members and gems

In short. Signing needs no membership: every browser signs with its own key. Membership opens rooms, where invited members leave remarks beside a draft. A gem lets you hand over the shape of your reading without your words.

Your key

The first time you use Desk, your browser makes a signing key. The private half can't be read out of the browser, not even by the page. Its public name, your DID, looks like did:habitat: and 32 characters. Open the eye at the top of the page to see it.

A different browser or computer, or clearing this browser's data, means a new key and a new DID. Use the same browser for work you want signed under one name.

Become a member

1. On Words, under a paragraph, click Room. If you're not a member it says: "Rooms open with membership and the writer's invitation."
2. Click Request membership. Add your name, and an email if you'd like a reply. Details shows the one other thing sent: this browser's DID.
3. Click Send request. The Foundation grants memberships by hand.
4. Desk then says "Request sent. The Foundation grants memberships by hand; this Room opens by itself once yours is granted." Copy puts your DID on the clipboard if you want to send it yourself.
5. Keep using the same browser. When your membership is granted, the room opens by itself the next time you come back to the page. The eye then reads "You sign as did:habitat:…; a member since …".

A membership opens what its grant names. If yours doesn't open rooms, the Room says "Your membership does not open rooms."

A member's signature carries the Foundation's signed grant, so anyone checking a file you signed can see you were a member when you signed it.

Rooms

A room belongs to a draft, and the writer makes it the first time they invite someone or leave a remark. Habitat serves no one's words except by the writer's own act, and only to the people that act names. A room is read only by its writer and the members the writer invited.

Invite someone. Inviting, like posting, needs membership. Under a paragraph, open Room and click Invite. Inviting shares your paragraphs, as they stand now, with the room, and copies a link. Send it yourself; Desk sends nothing. The person needs to be a member, in their own browser, to open it. Nothing else of your draft leaves your browser. Change your paragraphs and Invite again to share the later text; the link stays the same.

Who is reading. Once you've invited, the Room shows "Shared", how many paragraphs, and who is reading it, with remove beside each reader and End sharing for everyone. A removed reader's link no longer opens the room until you click let back in beside their name. Ending the share stops your paragraphs being served to anyone; the room keeps its remarks.

Your name in a room. The Room shows "Posting as" and your name, with change beside it. The name is kept in this browser and goes with each remark.

Opening an invitation. A member who opens the link joins the room and sees: "You were invited to this room. The writer shared these paragraphs with it; they are the writer's." Below that are the writer's paragraphs as shared. Select words in one, or click it for the whole paragraph, write, and click Post. A member without the link is told the room is the writer's; a reader the writer removed is told so.

Leave a remark. Select words in your paragraph (or none, for the whole paragraph), open Room, write, click Post. The words a remark was made on are tinted on the page, in each person's own colour. Anyone in the room can answer with Reply. Refresh shows remarks posted since you opened the room. If the words a remark was made on have changed since, the remark says so.

Who may post. "Who may post here" lets the writer limit the room to people who have already posted in it.

Remarks are kept. There is no delete; a room only grows. A remark stays in its room and never enters anyone's draft or reading.

What goes to the server

With a remark: the remark itself, your name and DID, where in the paragraph it was made, and a fingerprint (SHA-256) of the words it was made on, never the words. Each person's Desk shows the words from the copy it holds. With an invitation: your paragraphs as they stand, which the server keeps for the room and serves only to you and the readers who joined. An ended share is kept, sealed, and never served again. See What is kept, and where.

Gems

A gem is a small signed file that shows which of your paragraphs were read and how your sentences followed one another, with their totals. It never carries your words, your notes or the text of the passages.

Give a gem.

1. Read the paragraphs you want to include.
2. Open the drawer and click Room. Gems is at its foot. Your latest gem, if you have given one, leads; click it to open your held reads and your other gems. Tick the paragraphs.
3. Click Give the chosen as a gem. A file named like desk-gem-king-lear-20261020-1530.json downloads. Hand it to whoever you like.

Read a gem someone gave you. In Gems, click Review a gem, and pick the file. It opens read only. Paragraphs show as "The words of this paragraph stay with the writer." The eye shows who signed it and checks whether the gem is unchanged and whether Desk still holds the same text it was read against.

Your gems lists what you've given, newest first; older ones fold under Earlier. Gems older than 30 days that were neither saved nor given move to an archive, still kept, with put back.

Gem-Space

In a room, members can also Give the chosen to this room's Gem-Space. The room's Gem-Space adds up the gems given to it, one per person per session (a sitting of the room, which its writer opens and ends); a later gem replaces your earlier one, which stays listed. end beside your own gift takes its reading out of the space; the gift stays listed. The room's writer ends a session for everyone. Names and DIDs show only to the room's members; the totals are open.

What it does not do. Membership doesn't change what a signature proves: control of a key, not who a person is. A room reaches only its writer and the members they invited. A gem can't be turned back into your words.