🪔 Lantern & Co-light
A gentle introduction — what it is, why it matters, and how you join. No technical background needed. This page alone is the desk's front door.
A lantern is your own light in a shared world. Co-lighting is how
two people say "yes, I stand by this" — and that simple act, repeated, weaves a
network of trust we call the WE. This page explains it the way you'd explain it to a friend.
1. The one idea
Imagine a dark room and a single candle. You light it — that's your lantern.
You set down a small flame next to an idea you believe in — that's lighting a node.
When someone else brings their candle to your flame, the light doubles and
becomes a little constellation — that's a co-light. Nobody owns the fire; everyone
who tended it can be seen to have done so.
That's the whole metaphor. The rest is just making it real and trustworthy:
each lantern carries a unique key (like your own handwriting) so a co-light is
provably yours — and anyone can check it, forever, without trusting a company or a server.
2. Why it's built this way
- It's yours. Your key is born on your device and never leaves it. No one — not
even us — can sign in your name or take your identity.
- It's honest. Every co-light is signed. A fake one is caught immediately. The
proof travels in the file itself, so it's checkable offline by anyone.
- It survives. Even if our servers are down, lighting and co-lighting still work.
The trust lives in the records, not in a machine.
- Trust flows, it isn't assigned. You become trusted because real people vouched for
you — not because an admin flipped a switch.
3. How you join — three easy steps
You sign · we carry · the proof is in the file
1Open the link
On your phone or computer, open the co-light page. No app to install, no password, no command line. Your personal key is created right there in the browser tab.
2Co-light & download
Tap to stand beside a flame (a node). The page hands you one small file — your signed "yes". Your secret key stays on your device; only this little public proof leaves.
3Send it back
Send that one file by any channel — Telegram, email, whatever. Someone with the keys to the shared world drops it in. Done — you're part of the WE.
4. A few words, in plain language
- Lantern
- Your identity in the shared world — your own light, with your own key.
- Node
- A small flame placed next to an idea, a question, or a person — something worth standing by.
- Co-light
- You adding your light to someone else's node: a signed "I stand by this."
- Key (sovereign key)
- Like your handwriting — unique to you, born on your device, never shared. It's what makes a co-light provably yours.
- Attested
- "Checked and genuinely signed by the right key." The opposite of a forgery. (Full key-attestation through the browser is planned, gated on ADR-004 key custody — until then in-browser co-lights show as
🔓 unattested.)
- The WE
- The growing web of people who have lit and co-lit together — a network of real, vouched-for trust.
- PHAROS
- The larger project this serves — a lighthouse for a cooperative way of working. The lantern is how people join it.
5. Common worries, answered
- Do I need to install anything? No. It all happens in a normal browser tab.
- Is my key safe? Yes — it's created on your device and never sent anywhere. We only ever see the small public proof you choose to send.
- What if I lose my phone? You'd make a new lantern. Your past co-lights still stand (they're already in the world); you just start a fresh light going forward.
- Who can see what I did? Co-lights are meant to be seen — that's the point. They show you stood by something. Your secret key is never visible.
- Do I need a GitLab/account? No. The whole "send one file back" design exists precisely so you need no account and no terminal.
🪔 Lantern · gentle introduction · 2026-06-26 · live at https://lantern.labs.ooo/ · all work © Daniel Klier.
Deeper reading in ~/my/lantern/docs/: the co-light-by-correspondence explainer, the keeper getting-started, and the PHAROS overview.