RCOS Stress Tests
Real failures, replayed against RCOS
Layer 0 · Identity & Scope 5 stress tests
- High severityCommons Privatization through Land Sales When selling the land to members quietly makes the community impossible to leave fairly. Also involves
- High severityUnprotected Core Invariants When the founding promises can be undone by a single ordinary vote. Also involves
- Medium severityCultural Norm Violation Scope Test When an unwritten norm gets punished as if it were a written rule. Also involves
- Medium severityGovernance Creep into Private Life When the community has no declared private sphere, so it governs everything. Also involves
- Medium severityMission Drift Through Competing Purposes When the community tries to be everything and can no longer prioritize anything.
Layer 1 · Membership System 3 stress tests
- High severityExpulsion Without Due Process When a member can be pushed out with no process, no appeal, and no record. Also involves
- High severityRapid Growth without Onboarding When the community grows faster than it can integrate anyone. Also involves
- High severitySelf-Sufficiency Without Collective Contribution When everyone enjoys the commons but almost no one maintains it. Also involves
Layer 2 · Governance & Decision Logic 6 stress tests
- High severityCharismatic Spiritual Authority When reverence for a person quietly becomes their right to decide. Also involves
- High severityDominant Speakers in Decision Spaces When the loudest voice, not the agreed process, decides. Also involves
- High severityEmergency Rule Bypass Precedent When a temporary crisis exception quietly becomes the permanent rule. Also involves
- High severityFounder Informal Veto When the founder's quiet no still rules, even though nothing on paper grants it. Also involves
- High severityInformal Clique Decision Making When the real decisions happen before the meeting, among the same few people. Also involves
- Medium severityUndefined Decision Type When the group argues about what to decide before agreeing how to decide it.
Layer 3 · Economic & Resource System 3 stress tests
- High severityInvisible Care Labor Burnout When the community runs on the unpaid care of a quietly exhausted few. Also involves
- High severityOpaque Community Finances When only a few people actually know where the money goes.
- Medium severityOutsourced Labor Bypassing Contribution When money quietly buys a way out of community life. Also involves
Layer 4 · Conflict, Repair & Accountability 2 stress tests
Layer 5 · Operations & Coordination 2 stress tests
Layer 6 · Evolution & Adaptation 3 stress tests
- Medium severityInstitutional Amnesia When the community keeps relearning the same lessons the hard way. Also involves
- Medium severityIrreversible Experiments When "let's just try it" has no way back if it fails.
- Medium severityOssified Governance Without a Path to Change When nothing can change, so change happens by leaving instead.
Invariant Coverage
28 of 28 invariants covered
Every RCOS invariant, and the stress tests that currently exercise it.
Identity & Scope
- INV-0.1 Single primary purpose Mission Drift Through Competing Purposes
- INV-0.2 Explicit governed scope Commons Privatization through Land SalesCultural Norm Violation Scope TestGovernance Creep into Private LifeMission Drift Through Competing Purposes
- INV-0.3 Declared non-governed space Governance Creep into Private Life
- INV-0.4 Protected invariants Unprotected Core Invariants
Membership System
- INV-1.1 No implicit membership Cultural Norm Violation Scope TestInformal Clique Decision MakingRapid Growth without Onboarding
- INV-1.2 Entry and exit are always possible Commons Privatization through Land SalesExpulsion Without Due Process
- INV-1.3 Rights and obligations symmetry Outsourced Labor Bypassing ContributionSelf-Sufficiency Without Collective Contribution
- INV-1.4 Due process for forced exit Expulsion Without Due Process
Governance & Decision Logic
- INV-2.1 Decision type precedes decision content Undefined Decision Type
- INV-2.2 Authority must be explicit Charismatic Spiritual AuthorityDominant Speakers in Decision SpacesFounder Informal VetoUndefined Decision Type
- INV-2.3 Constitutional rules outrank all others Emergency Rule Bypass PrecedentFounder Informal Veto
- INV-2.4 Decisions are reviewable Informal Clique Decision Making
Economic & Resource System
- INV-3.1 Economic transparency by default Opaque Community Finances
- INV-3.2 Commons protection Commons Privatization through Land Sales
- INV-3.3 Contribution recognition is explicit Invisible Care Labor BurnoutOutsourced Labor Bypassing ContributionSelf-Sufficiency Without Collective Contribution
- INV-3.4 No unbounded accumulation of internal power Invisible Power via ResponsibilitiesOpaque Community Finances
Conflict, Repair & Accountability
- INV-4.1 Conflict is handled, not avoided Conflict Avoidance NormalizationDominant Speakers in Decision SpacesOutsourced Labor Bypassing ContributionPunishment Before Repair
- INV-4.2 Power asymmetry is acknowledged Charismatic Spiritual Authority
- INV-4.3 Repair precedes punishment Expulsion Without Due ProcessPunishment Before Repair
- INV-4.4 Safety overrides participation Cultural Norm Violation Scope Test
Operations & Coordination
- INV-5.1 Roles must be defined Dominant Speakers in Decision SpacesInvisible Power via Responsibilities
- INV-5.2 Operational knowledge is documented Institutional AmnesiaInvisible Power via ResponsibilitiesRapid Growth without OnboardingUndefined Information Access
- INV-5.3 Time and attention are finite resources Invisible Care Labor BurnoutSelf-Sufficiency Without Collective Contribution
- INV-5.4 Information access rules are explicit Undefined Information Access
Evolution & Adaptation
- INV-6.1 Change is possible but constrained Ossified Governance Without a Path to ChangeUnprotected Core Invariants
- INV-6.2 Changes are versioned Emergency Rule Bypass PrecedentOssified Governance Without a Path to Change
- INV-6.3 Experiments are reversible Irreversible Experiments
- INV-6.4 Learning is captured Institutional AmnesiaIrreversible Experiments
About
What the Stress Tests Are
RCOS Stress Tests are real-world failure scenarios — situations communities have actually lived through — formalized as test cases that the RCOS specification must withstand. Each test describes a concrete failure mode, the layers it touches, the invariants it stresses, and the structural response RCOS expects.
A stress test answers a single question:
> If this happened to a community using RCOS, would the system absorb it — or would the system have to be bypassed?
If RCOS can survive the scenario without informal fixes, the test passes. If it cannot, the test fails — and a failing test points to a real gap in the framework that future versions must close. Stress tests are how RCOS stays honest: the spec is only as strong as the failures it has been tested against.
How to Use Them
- As a design check — read them before founding a community to anticipate what can go wrong.
- As an audit tool — walk through them with an existing group and notice which scenarios you have no answer for.
- As a conflict aid — when something breaks, find the relevant test and follow the expected behavior instead of improvising.
- As a shared vocabulary for naming failure patterns without blaming individuals.
Tools
Two companion tools make the library easier to act on:
- Self-Assessment — tick the warning signs that feel familiar and see which stress tests your community is closest to, ranked by how pressing they are, each linked to the structures that prevent it. Everything stays in your browser.
- Facilitation Guide — how to run a stress test as a group session: a step-by-step worksheet that turns any test into a 60–90 minute conversation ending in a concrete next step.
What These Tests Can’t Do
RCOS is a structural framework, and these tests inherit its limits. Stating them plainly is part of staying honest:
- They make handling explicit; they don’t do the handling. A test can tell you conflict must enter a defined process — it can’t have the hard conversation for you, or supply the courage, care, and goodwill that process needs to actually work.
- They don’t heal people. Structure can stop harm from being ignored or hidden, but it doesn’t resolve trauma, rebuild broken trust, or substitute for mediation, therapy, or time. RCOS makes room for that work; it isn’t that work.
- They don’t manufacture relationships. No protocol creates warmth, chemistry, or belonging. The tests can protect those things from structural erosion, but a community still has to genuinely want to live together.
- Passing is not the goal; honesty is. A community can satisfy every test on paper and still be a hard place to live, or fail several and still be thriving. The tests are a mirror for structural risk, not a certificate of health.
- They describe patterns, not your specifics. Each test is a composite of many real failures. Recognising yourself in one is the start of a conversation, not a diagnosis — your context decides what to actually do.
Use them for the one thing they are genuinely good at: making the implicit explicit, before it costs you.
Contributing a Stress Test
The library grows by absorbing real experience. If your community has lived through a structural failure not yet covered here, we welcome it. Get in touch with the situation — what happened, which layers were involved, how it was (or wasn’t) resolved — and we will consider adding it as a new stress test. Real failures make RCOS stronger.