roost is an example of what comes after platforms. The members own the asset. AI agents run the day-to-day. Members prompt and oversee — they don't have to operate the thing they own. Below: how voting works, where every pound goes, who has the keys, and the timeline from "Simon built it" to "members run it."
When you join roost as a host you become a co-owner, not a customer. Concretely, you get the following rights · written down here so they can't quietly disappear later:
On every rule, every feature change, every financial decision. Big hosts and tiny hosts have equal say.
Every pound in and out of roost is visible on this page · refreshed monthly. No hidden management fees.
You can override any AI agent decision affecting your listing within 24 hours · no questions asked.
Leave any time. Your stays.json stays on your domain. Your reviews export to JSON. No lock-in possible.
First 100 members: lifetime £20/month even if everyone else's price rises. Permanent founding-member status.
If you disagree with the direction, you can fork the whole codebase and run a competing aggregator. MIT licensed · CC0 protocol.
The promise is "user-operated" but a co-op where every host has to manually do operations work is just another job. So we built it differently: AI agents do the operations, members prompt and oversee.
You watch. You prompt when something needs deciding. You don't run the platform · the platform runs itself under your watch.
Time: ~15 seconds. Member effort: one prompt.
Roost doesn't run majority votes. Majority is a bullying mechanism — 51% wins, 49% lose, the group is fractured, and "consensus" was never reached. We use something better.
FallConsensus is a sovereign open-source mesh governance tool that detects whether the group is genuinely aligned across seven dimensions, rather than counting yes/no votes. It runs in the browser · no server · no central authority · P2P mesh signed positions.
Three conditions must all hold simultaneously for five continuous seconds before consensus is declared:
If all three hold stable for 5 seconds, consensus is declared. If not, the system says "not yet" — which is itself valuable information. The decision waits. The group iterates. Real alignment is reached, or the proposal dies.
| Decision type | Examples | Threshold + Time |
|---|---|---|
| Routine ops | New host approval · suspend bad actor · monthly cost variance | Standard consensus · 30% quorum · 5-day window |
| Standing rule | Membership fee · what's allowed in stays.json · constitution edits | Tighter consensus · 50% quorum · 14-day window |
| Existential | Dissolve roost · merge · replace steward · change ownership structure | High consensus · all members · 30-day window · no quorum exception |
Every position is signed and visible — no secret ballots. The full similarity matrix is published with every decision · you can see exactly where the group agreed and where it didn't.
Right now (June 2026), roost was built by Simon at AI Native Solutions. Here's exactly how it transitions to fully member-owned + AI-operated:
The codebase exists · the protocol is published · Wishwood Glamping is the first live reference implementation. Aggregator running on Cloudflare free tier.
Hand-picked from word-of-mouth, this LinkedIn post, and the Wishwood ↔ Smallworld Kent cluster. Each pays £20/mo. Simon Gant (AI Native Solutions) acts as named interim Steward + tech maintainer · charges £100/mo stipend + the build fee schedule (visible below). Members reach decisions via FallConsensus on everything else.
5-member governing council elected from membership · 6-month terms · sets operational policy · approves AI agent prompts before they go live · publishes minutes after each meeting (monthly).
The 8-agent ops system (intake · approval · finance · communications · moderation · billing · reporting · audit) reaches full autonomy under member oversight. Simon's role drops to "code maintenance" only.
At 100 hosts, members run a FallConsensus session on the Steward role · keep Simon at a renegotiated rate · replace him with a different tech provider · or hand maintenance to the council directly. As Simon puts it: "I'll be steward of roost until I'm voted out lol." He hands over all keys + admin access on consensus decision, no resistance, no clawback.
Roost is structurally unsellable. There is no equity to buy. There is no founder shareholding. Even Simon cannot sell roost · the council cannot sell roost · the codebase is MIT, the protocol is CC0. The only "exit" possible is dissolution by 3/4 member vote, with assets distributed equally to members on that date.
This is the live financial picture. Updated monthly. Members get a separate spreadsheet with every transaction itemised.
| Category | Type | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Membership fees · 12 founding members × £20 (June 2026 illustrative) | ↑ in | £240/mo |
| Cloudflare Workers + KV (free tier covers us to ~500 members) | ↓ infra | £0 |
| Domain (roost.land · annualised) | ↓ infra | £3/mo |
| Claude API (AI agents at current volume) | ↓ AI | £28/mo |
| Stripe membership fees (1.4% + 20p × 12) | ↓ payments | £5/mo |
| Coordinator stipend (Simon · interim · until council elected) | ↓ builder | £100/mo |
| Build fee · Simon (one-time · paid over 6 months from membership pool · ends Dec 2026) | ↓ builder | £400/mo |
| Surplus (voted into features / lower fees / host grants) | −£296/mo (negative · subsidised from build budget until ~30 members) | |
⚠ The build fee + coordinator stipend make roost loss-making at 12 members. We're subsidising from the launch budget until membership reaches ~30 hosts (Aug 2026 target). At 50 hosts we're profitable; at 100 we generate ~£600/month surplus for the co-op to vote on.
This is the contract: every transaction roost makes (membership in · costs out · Simon's pay · coordinator stipend · surplus allocation) is visible. We publish a Google Sheet · members can audit · external accountant signs off quarterly. If we ever stop publishing, members can vote to fire the tech provider.
The £500 build fee + stipend is the only money Simon takes from roost. No equity. No exit upside. No "founder forever" arrangement. Once the build is paid off (Dec 2026), he's just another vendor.
Full transparency on what AI Native Solutions (Simon Gant) earns from roost:
| Item | Amount | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Build fee · one-time | £2,400 total · paid over 6 months | For designing + writing all roost code (worker · marketplace · governance UI · stays-protocol · AI ops integration). Equivalent to ~6 days of contract work. |
| Coordinator stipend · interim (Jun-Sept 2026) | £100/mo | For handling host vetting, member queries, ops oversight while council not yet elected. Ends when council takes over. |
| Ongoing maintenance · post-handover | £0 (or whatever council votes) | After Q2 2027 vote, Simon either continues at a council-negotiated rate, or is replaced. No assumed continuity. |
| Total Simon earns from roost · year 1 | £2,800 | For 6 days of build + 4 months of coordination. After that, £0 by default. |
Important: AI agents don't have unlimited authority. They operate within a hard-coded permission boundary that only a 3/4 member vote can change.
| AI can do without asking | Bounded by |
|---|---|
| Index new published stays.json files | Domain verification + duplicate check |
| Send notification emails to members | Templates approved by council |
| Generate financial reports | Read-only access to bank · no transfer authority |
| Draft responses to member queries | Auto-flag for human review if confidence < 80% |
| Auto-suspend listings flagged for fraud (≥3 valid signals) | 24hr cooling-off · member can override · always opens member vote |
| AI cannot do without member prompt + vote |
|---|
| Approve a new host onto the marketplace |
| Permanently ban a member |
| Move money out of the roost account |
| Change membership pricing |
| Change the constitution / these rules |
| Delete data |
| Sign any external contract |
Every AI action is logged in an immutable audit trail. Members can review every decision the AI made in the last quarter and challenge any of them at the council meeting.
Every platform shape that's existed in the last 20 years extracted value from the people who created it. The user-owned + AI-operated structure makes that extraction impossible by design:
| Model | Owns the asset | Operates it | Extractable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old SaaS (Airbnb, Booking, Hostaway) | VCs / founders | Founders + 1000s of staff | Yes · forever |
| Open source (Mastodon, Diaspora) | Instance admins | Volunteer admins · burnout-prone | Limited · but unsustainable |
| Traditional co-op (Stocksy, Equal Exchange) | Members | Paid staff team | Limited · but high overhead |
| User-owned + AI-operated (roost) | Members · structurally | AI agents · with member oversight | No · by design |
AI just turned the per-user cost of platform operations from £8 to £0.08.
Member-owned co-ops were always the right answer · they just couldn't afford to run.
Now they can.
£20/month flat · lifetime fee lock at £20 even when others' price rises · vote on every decision · AI does the operations · you watch and prompt · structurally impossible to be acquired or extracted from.