RCOS Templates
Fill-in documents for every layer
Layer 0 · Identity & Scope
What problem does this community exist to solve?
- Purpose Charter §2.1
- Scope Declaration §2.2
- Invariants Register §2.3 Invariants are constraints that MUST NOT be violated while they are in force. No decision, role, process, or emergency measure may override an invariant. If a conflict arises between an invariant and any other rule, the invariant prevails.
- Identity Constraints Register §2.4 Identity constraints are the non-negotiable behavioural, ethical, and structural boundaries that shape who the community is. Unlike invariants (which protect the system itself), identity constraints define how members and the community relate to people, ecosystems, and ideologies.
Layer 1 · Membership System
Who is inside the system, and under what conditions?
Layer 2 · Governance & Decision Logic
How decisions are made, changed, and enforced.
- Decision Matrix §4.2 Maps every decision type and domain to an authorized role or body, mechanism, threshold, and escalation path. Decisions made outside this matrix are considered invalid.
- Governance Protocol §4.5 Defines the full lifecycle of a collective decision — from proposal submission to documentation and appeal.
- Authority Registry §4.3 Lists all roles, circles, or bodies that hold decision-making authority, along with their explicit scope, limits, and term.
Layer 3 · Economic & Resource System
How value flows inside the community.
Layer 4 · Conflict, Repair & Accountability
What happens when things break.
Layer 5 · Operations & Coordination
How daily life and work actually function.
- Operations Manual §7.1
- Role Registry §7.1
- Meeting Templates §7.2 Meeting templates declare the purpose, decision scope, quorum, and structure of each meeting type. A meeting without a declared template will, given enough time, accumulate authority it should not have. Adapt these templates and add or remove meeting types as your community needs.
Layer 6 · Evolution & Adaptation
How the system changes without collapsing.
- Change Protocol §8.1
- Version History §8.2 The authoritative human-readable record of all adopted changes to your community's RCOS implementation. The currently active version is the most recent entry at the top of this file. Superseded rules remain accessible via version control.
- Learning Log §8.4 Records major failures, adaptations, reversals, and systemic learnings. Repeated failure patterns must trigger structural review, not individual blame. Entries are prepended (most recent first).
- Experiment Template §8.3 Experiments let the community try a change without permanently adopting it. To stay safe, every experiment must be time-bounded, labeled, and auto-expiring — and must record its results in the Learning Log.
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Generated 2026-08-31
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Layer 0
Layer 1
About
What the RCOS Templates Are
The RCOS Templates turn the abstract RCOS Core specification into working documents a community can actually fill in. They are organized by layer (Layer 0 through Layer 6) and split into the concrete artifacts that each layer requires — for example a Purpose Charter, a Scope Declaration, an Invariants Register, or a Decision Matrix.
Every template:
- references the exact RCOS Core clauses it implements,
- explains the rationale behind each section — why it exists and what risk it mitigates,
- provides instructions on how to fill it in, and
- leaves clearly marked placeholders for your community’s own answers.
The templates do not prescribe values, culture, or beliefs. They prescribe what must be made explicit so that values, culture, and beliefs can be debated, recorded, and changed without breaking the system.
Who They Are For
- Communities founding themselves and wanting a durable, explicit structure from day one.
- Existing communities auditing their implicit norms against the RCOS spec.
- Facilitators running structural conversations with a group.
- Anyone using RCOS as a shared language for governance, conflict, or resource decisions.
How to Use Them
- Start with Layer 0 — Identity & Scope. It is the foundation everything else stands on.
- Work through the layers in order. Each one references and builds on the previous.
- Fill in the placeholders as a group, using the rationale and instructions to keep the conversation honest.
- Treat the result as a living constitution — versioned, reviewable, and amendable through the process you define.
Adoption can be incremental. Partial RCOS compliance is still meaningful, as long as the parts you adopt remain explicit and reviewable. Skipping a layer is allowed; pretending to have one when you don’t is not.
Languages and Downloads
The templates are available in English, German, Spanish, and French. You can browse each artifact online, or download the full bundle as a single package (Markdown, DOCX, or ODT) to edit offline with your group.