The Autonomous Stack (TAS)
A decision framework for building infrastructure you actually control.
If your system requires an external account to function — you don’t control it. If it can’t be stopped, exited, or recovered — you’re renting, not owning.
Start here
→ Infrastructure Audit — evaluate your stack. Eight questions, 15 minutes per service.
→ Technology Catalog — choose a tool. 20+ technologies rated A0–A3.
→ Minimal Autonomous Server — build from scratch. VPN, DNS, auth, sync, backups, monitoring, media, Git.
cd code/minimal-server
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your secrets
docker compose up -d
The eight questions
Three structural — can you control it?
| # | Question | Tests |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pause | Can you stop it without permanent damage? |
| 2 | Exit | Can you leave with all your data? |
| 3 | Recoverability | Can you roll back if something breaks? |
Five diagnostic — what’s pulling at you?
| # | Question | Tests |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Personalisation | Does it build a behavioural model of you? |
| 5 | Urgency | Does it manufacture time pressure? |
| 6 | Hidden cost | What do you pay besides money? |
| 7 | Transparency fragility | Does its value depend on your ignorance? |
| 8 | Trajectory | Is the project moving toward openness — or closure? |
The first three determine the Autonomy Level. The next five reveal what the rating doesn’t show.
→ Full framework: Infrastructure Audit
Catalog sample
| Technology | Autonomy | Transparency | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| WireGuard | A3 | T2 | VPN |
| Syncthing | A3 | T2 | File sync |
| Jellyfin | A3 | T2 | Media server |
| Tailscale | A2 | T1 | Mesh VPN |
| Plex | A1 | T0 | Media server |
| Notion | A0 | T0 | Documents |
| Google Drive | A0 | T0 | File storage |
→ Full catalog: Technology Catalog
Philosophy
TAS is built on the whose.world framework.
Every digital environment is an architecture built by someone. An open-mode architecture contains pauses, allows exit, and survives scrutiny. A closed-mode architecture removes pauses, punishes exit, and depends on your inability to see how it works.
The eight questions are a practical translation of this philosophy into infrastructure decisions.
License
- Code: MIT
- Documentation: CC BY-SA 4.0
TAS applies the philosophical framework of whose.world to infrastructure decisions. If you use TAS, please link back to both projects.