Co-Op

Co-Op is local-first business management software for company planning, research, files, customer work, and operational decisions. The installed desktop app owns the business workspace. The cloud backend owns account identity and license entitlement.

The product is designed for business owners, not developers. Daily work should feel like using private business software, while technical choices such as model providers, local storage, review gates, and license validation stay behind clear setup screens and documentation.

Product Boundary

flowchart LR
  Owner["Business owner"]
  Web["Web account<br/>login, license, download"]
  Cloud["Cloud license API<br/>identity, entitlement, heartbeat"]
  Desktop["Installed desktop app<br/>company work, files, plans, research"]
  Local["Local data<br/>state, files, memory, secrets"]
  Provider["Customer-selected AI<br/>Ollama or BYOK endpoint"]
  Optional["Customer-selected services<br/>web research, email, integrations"]

  Owner --> Web
  Web --> Cloud
  Owner --> Desktop
  Desktop -->|"activate and heartbeat only"| Cloud
  Desktop --> Local
  Desktop --> Provider
  Desktop --> Optional

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Cloud services are intentionally narrow. Customer prompts, outputs, company files, provider keys, outreach content, and local run history stay on the installed machine unless the customer explicitly routes work to a configured external provider.

What Is Included

• Public web site, login, account center, download page, legal pages, and admin license console.
• NestJS license backend for license generation, customer key deletion, activation, heartbeat, deactivation, health checks, and existing-user backfill.
• Tauri desktop app for onboarding, company profile, private files, local search, business memory, advisor chat, work plans, research, customers, outreach, pitch review, calculators, ownership tools, settings, and license status.
• Local-first model routing through Ollama or an OpenAI-compatible bring-your-own-key endpoint.
• Optional local configuration for Firecrawl web research and Resend or SendGrid email sending.
• Documentation for architecture, licensing, orchestration, operations, data boundaries, positioning, audits, and contribution rules.

What Is Not Included

• A hosted business dashboard for customer workflow execution.
• A mobile wrapper.
• A hosted document or chat service.
• A separate mandatory vector service.
• Any cloud path that stores raw license keys, activation tokens, provider keys, prompts, files, or customer outputs.

Those areas should not be reintroduced without a recorded product decision.

Repository Layout

backend/              NestJS cloud license control plane
frontend/             Next.js web app and Tauri desktop UI
frontend/src-tauri/   Rust runtime for local activation, storage, providers, and workflows
docs/                 Architecture, operations, licensing, data, and product references
AGENTS.md             Operating contract for humans and coding agents

Important implementation anchors:

• backend/src/modules/licenses/ contains activation, heartbeat, deactivation, self-service, and admin license flows.
• backend/src/database/schema/licenses.schema.ts is the cloud license schema source of truth.
• frontend/src/app/ contains public web routes, account routes, admin routes, legal pages, and the desktop route.
• frontend/src/components/desktop/ contains the installed desktop UI modules.
• frontend/src/lib/desktop/runtime/ contains the typed client boundary between React and Tauri.
• frontend/src-tauri/src/ contains local runtime modules for licensing, settings, workspace, chat, files, research, outreach, tools, providers, storage, validation, security, and secrets.

Hosted Web And Desktop Separation

The hosted web application is for marketing, authentication, account management, download, and admin licensing. It must not expose the installed desktop app as a hosted production product.

Production web builds block /desktop and /local routes. Desktop builds set the Tauri export environment so the installed app can render the local shell from the bundled static files.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20 or newer.
• npm 10 or newer.
• Rust stable.
• Tauri system prerequisites for the target operating system.
• PostgreSQL-compatible database for the backend.
• Supabase project for cloud authentication.

Backend Setup

cd backend
npm install
cp .env.example .env
npm run db:migrate
npm run dev

Required backend variables:

Variable	Purpose
DATABASE_URL	PostgreSQL connection string.
DATABASE_SSL_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED	Set to true in production unless the database provider requires a documented exception.
SUPABASE_URL	Supabase project URL.
SUPABASE_ANON_KEY	Supabase public anon key used to verify user sessions.
LICENSE_KEY_PEPPER	Strong server secret used for keyed license and activation-token hashes.
CORS_ORIGINS	Comma-separated trusted web origins in production.
LICENSE_OFFLINE_GRACE_DAYS	Optional desktop offline grace window.
SUPABASE_SERVICE_KEY	Optional one-off key for existing-user license backfills.

Frontend And Desktop Setup

cd frontend
npm install
cp .env.example .env.local
npm run dev

Required frontend variables:

Variable	Purpose
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL	Supabase project URL for browser auth.
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY	Supabase browser anon key.
NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL	Backend API URL, usually ending in /api/v1.
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL	Public web app URL.
COOP_CLOUD_URL	Optional desktop build override for the cloud origin.

Desktop development:

cd frontend
npm run tauri:dev

Desktop release build:

cd frontend
npm run build:tauri
npm run tauri:build

Release installers are written under frontend/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

Verification

Run the narrow checks while iterating. Before shipping product changes, run the full suite:

cd backend
npm test
npm run build
npm audit --audit-level=low

cd ../frontend
npm run typecheck
npm run build
npm run build:tauri
npm audit --audit-level=low
npm run audit:rust

cd src-tauri
cargo test
cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings

When a desktop installer is expected, also run:

cd frontend
npm run tauri:build

Security Principles

• Never log raw license keys, activation tokens, provider keys, prompts, files, or customer outputs.
• Store backend license keys and activation tokens only as keyed hashes.
• Store desktop activation tokens and provider keys in OS credential storage.
• Keep business workflows local to the installed app.
• Require explicit customer configuration before routing work to an external AI, research, email, or integration provider.
• Keep production CORS restricted to known origins.
• Keep /desktop and /local unavailable in hosted production web builds.

Report security issues privately to contact@co-op.software.

Documentation

• AGENTS.md - repository operating contract.
• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md - cloud, web, desktop, and local runtime architecture.
• docs/LICENSING.md - license lifecycle, activation, heartbeat, revocation, and backfill.
• docs/AGENT_ORCHESTRATION.md - local advisor/workflow harness and review policy.
• docs/DATA_PLANE.md - local storage, file memory, and optional self-host direction.
• docs/OPERATIONS.md - development, deployment, release, cleanup, and incident response.
• docs/PRODUCT_POSITIONING.md - owner-facing language, market position, onboarding, and UX bar.
• docs/CODEBASE_AUDIT.md - modularity and maintainability audit.
• docs/FEATURE_RESTORATION_AUDIT.md - restored feature families and production hardening status.

License

MIT