# CongoOS — a sovereign Android for old phones

> **Status: MVP launcher LIVE; ROM is roadmap.** The MVP below — the CongoOS
> launcher as an installable, offline-first PWA — is now live at **`/congoos/`**. The
> full custom distro (a LineageOS/AOSP image) remains the next mountain, honestly named.

## What it is

An Android distribution for the **next billion**: old, cheap, low-storage phones —
**debloated, offline-first, sovereign**. No surveillance bloatware. Khuluma, Klaus,
and Lucid baked in and **useful in airplane mode**. BadgerNet/MambaNet for
messaging with no data plan.

## Two paths — and we start with the cheap one

A full custom ROM is a multi-gigabyte, multi-month effort needing its own repo, a
build farm, and per-device trees. So we **don't start there.** We ladder up:

**1. MVP now — CongoOS Launcher (LIVE at `/congoos/`).** ✅
- A home-screen launcher surfacing the live CongoSky apps — **Klaus, Lucid, Khuluma,
  Browser, Sentinel, CongoGold, LightWeb, Qapha, Ikhaya, CongoBand** — as an installable
  PWA (manifest + service worker), **offline-first** and **system-font light** so it opens
  instantly on an old phone with no data.
- Runs on *any* Android today. Debloats by *replacing the experience*, not the OS.
- Shipped. This is the honest "start on it" — a real, installable thing, not a slide.

**2. Next — a GSI / LineageOS-based image.**
- Base on **LineageOS** (or an AOSP GSI) for broad device support; strip Google
  services to optional; preload the bundle; harden defaults.
- This is where "a distro" really begins — its **own repo + CI/build infra**, device
  trees, and signing. Not buildable in a static-site sandbox.

**3. Later — bespoke CongoOS images per popular cheap device.**

## What's baked in (all already real in this repo)

| layer | source |
|-------|--------|
| Companion | **Klaus** (`/klaus/`) — offline memory, no fabrication |
| Assistant | **Lucid** (`/the420code/lucid/`) — compute-first, airplane-mode |
| Messaging/safety | **Khuluma** (`/khuluma/`) + **BadgerNet/MambaNet** |
| Tiniest tier | **Lucid-nano** — for embedded/IoT companions on the same network |

## Honest scope

- **No ROM exists yet.** This directory is the plan and the MVP definition.
- A real Android distro needs its own repository, an AOSP/LineageOS toolchain, device
  trees, and image signing — none of which live in a marketing repo. When that repo
  is in scope, this plan is the brief.
- The win we can ship *now* is the **Launcher + bundle** — the CongoOS *experience* on
  existing Android, built from the PWAs already live on congosky.cloud.