How the catalog is filed

One Pool, three layers

Belay Partners, at Drip Line

The same Pool is a page on its host’s own site, a JSON file anyone can read, and a card in any app that reads it. Here is André’s entry, all three ways, as Halima sees it in our Climbing drawer.

1. 1 · The site layer

   A page on Drip Line’s own site

   Drip Line keeps the Pool on its own domain, with its charter, its curators and the belay check that is its vouch.

   Belay Partners on Drip Line

2. 2 · The data layer

   A JSON file anyone can read

   The manifest, valid against pool_manifest.schema.json, with André’s entry and his parsed profile. Every field on the card below marked v0.1 comes from here. drip-line-belay.json

   {
     "schema_version": "0.1",
     "id": "drip-line-belay",
     "name": "Belay Partners",
     "curator": [
       {
         "identity": "pilar@mail.example",
         "display_name": "Pilar Echeverría",
         "verification_level": "oauth",
         "primary": true
       },
       {
         "identity": "emil@mail.example",
         "display_name": "Emil Kowalczyk",
         "verification_level": "oauth",
         "primary": false
       }
     ],
     "intent_tags": [
       "climbing",
       "belay",
       "partners"
     ],
     "visibility": "public",
     "consent_model": "vouching-required",
     "curator_contact": "desk@driplineclimbing.example",
     "charter": "Climbers who passed a staff belay check at Drip Line and would like to be asked to climb, most often on Saturday mornings. The check is our vouch in this Pool and nowhere else: one of us watched you tie in, belay, catch a fall and lower, once, here. Say what you climb and when, in your own words. Nobody pays to be here or to be introduced.",
     "geographic_scope": {
       "city": "Seattle",
       "region": "Washington",
       "country": "United States"
     },
     "governance_rules": "Vouching-required. A member of floor staff watches each climber once, at the gym: a harness on right, a figure-eight follow-through, the device loaded and locked, the brake hand never off the rope, a caught fall, a smooth lower, and the calls. Then they vouch, and the Pool asks. The vouch means that, here, on that day. It is local to this Pool (Kindling §4.4) and carries into no other Pool, app or gym. A check that does not pass is a “not yet”, told in person, and written down nowhere. If staff see an unsafe belay later, they talk to you on the floor and ask you to check again; until then your entry comes off this Pool. Handshake requests wait the default 14 days. Memberships and day passes pay for the gym, the staff and the checks. Nobody pays to be in a Pool or to be introduced.",
     "messaging_preferences": {
       "block_list_subscriptions": [
         "https://protocol.kindling.foundation/blocklist.json",
         "https://thecircular.example/blocklist.json"
       ],
       "minimum_sender_verification": "email"
     },
     "status": "active",
     "created_at": "2025-10-07T17:00:00Z",
     "updated_at": "2026-09-23T02:05:00Z",
     "entries": [
       {
         "profile_url": "https://andre-baptiste.example",
         "parsed_profile": {
           "schema_version": "0.1",
           "profile_url": "https://andre-baptiste.example",
           "display_name": "André Baptiste",
           "pronouns": "he/him",
           "location": {
             "city": "Seattle",
             "region": "Washington",
             "country": "United States"
           },
           "intent_tags": [
             "climbing",
             "lead",
             "belay",
             "bouldering"
           ],
           "about": "Middle-school science teacher. Leads in the gym, and would like a steady Saturday partner who does not mind a slow warm-up.",
           "contact_methods": [
             {
               "type": "email",
               "value": "andre@mail.example",
               "label": "Kindling identity"
             }
           ],
           "verification": {
             "level": "curator-vouched",
             "verified_at": "2025-11-05T02:30:00Z",
             "verifier": "pilar@mail.example"
           },
           "messaging_preferences": {
             "accept_from": "verified",
             "no_cold_messages": false,
             "minimum_curator_verification": "email"
           },
           "kindling_noindex": false,
           "parsed_at": "2025-11-05T02:30:00Z",
           "parser": "kindling-parser/0.1.1"
         },
         "parsed_at": "2025-11-05T02:30:00Z",
         "consent_proof": {
           "handshake_id": "hs-drip-line-drip-line-belay-andre",
           "accepted_at": "2025-11-05T02:30:00Z",
           "method": "curator-vouching"
         },
         "verification_level": "curator-vouched",
         "added_at": "2025-11-05T02:30:00Z",
         "added_by": "pilar@mail.example"
       },
       "… and 5 more entries"
     ]
   }

3. 3 · The app layer

   A card in Card Catalog

   Filed under CLM 01 in the Climbing drawer. André’s own page adds his job, languages, interests and pictures; everything else is from the file. His rules take any verified sender, so Halima can write to him herself.

   1. CLM 02 · Tuesday Regulars · +1 more

      Baptiste, André

      he/him · Seattle · in Seattle too

      Signed in with OAuth

      “People who boulder at Drip Line most weeks, often on Tuesday nights, and would like the other regulars to know their name.”

      Filed under 1. bouldering 2. climbing 3. friendship 4. regulars · public

      Kept by Hugo Sandoval · on Drip Line · its JSON · this card

      You can write now

{
  "schema_version": "0.1",
  "message_id": "msg-cc-ask-yesenia-priya-1",
  "type": "intro",
  "sender": {
    "identity": "yesenia@mail.example",
    "display_name": "Yesenia Robles",
    "verification_level": "email",
    "profile_url": "https://yesenia-robles.carrd.example"
  },
  "recipient": {
    "identity": "fina@mail.example"
  },
  "via_pool": {
    "url": "https://midspan.ellerycoast.example/pools/midspan-mentors.json",
    "id": "midspan-mentors",
    "name": "Midspan Mentors"
  },
  "sent_at": "2026-09-28T09:40:00Z",
  "subject": "A request for an introduction to Priya, through Card Catalog",
  "body": {
    "content_type": "text/plain",
    "content": "Hi Fina,\n\nI am taking nursing prerequisites two classes at a time and working evenings. Priya’s card says she did it while working as an aide. Would you ask her whether she would talk to me about it?\n\nYesenia\n\n(Asked about the card for Priya Raman, https://docs.example/d/priya-raman-mentoring, in Midspan Mentors.)"
  },
  "transport": {
    "type": "email",
    "message_headers": {
      "X-Kindling-Client": "Card Catalog"
    }
  }
}

Settings, mapped to the spec

What we chose, and why

The Pools we read, drawer by drawer

Where every Pool opens, and where a yes goes

Found through discovery files §8.3, or by an address a person gives us, checked against pool_manifest.schema.json, filtered by each Pool’s block lists and by noindex. The drawers first, then Other Pools, each under its own name. The three we never read, and why, are in the table on our About page.

Safety that travels

The block lists we honor

Checked on every letter, for every Pool a card is filed under, against the lists that Pool subscribes to §7.3.

Honest limits

What the v0.1 schema can’t say yet

Where the spec text and a schema disagree, our JSON follows the schema. These are the gaps that touch a search app.

1. Pages say more than a parsed profile can (§2.4). The v0.1 parsed profile has no age, gender, seeking, job, languages or answers. Card Catalog reads them from the page each card points to, the way a browser would, and never stores photo bytes. Another app may read the page differently; the protocol doesn’t fix the fields yet.
2. Where a field came from (§2.3). The spec asks parsers to record which fields came from h-card and which were inferred, in an extraction_source field. parsed_profile.schema.json has no such field and forbids extra properties, so we mark the source on screen instead: v0.1 or page.
3. A drawer has no field (§3.2). A Pool says what it is for only through intent_tags. Our drawers are our own shortcuts over those tags, written down in our table of Pools; another app may file the same Pool differently, and a Pool that fits none of ours opens under its own name.
4. A yes has no message (§7.2, §6.3). no_cold_messages means “require confirmed mutual interest”, but no message type says “yes”. Yeses are app-local: a yes made in Card Catalog stays here, and one made in Face Up, Heartwood or Sundial stays there.
5. A Pool’s own contact rules (§7.2). Correo Lento’s one letter a week, and its hold on every first letter until both people say they want to write, are in its charter, its governance_rules and its site, not in any manifest field. We read the words and follow them.
6. Asking a curator has no message type (§4.4, §6.3). When a Pool’s introductions go through its curator, a request is an ordinary intro to the curator, with via_pool. Nothing in v0.1 says “please introduce me to this entry”.
7. A Pool’s list for members only (§3.2). Seen Work says contractors never see Harbor Trades. visibility has only public, unlisted and invite-only, so an unlisted Pool whose list is for members says so in governance_rules, and we follow the words.
8. Verification level names (§4.5). The spec text names email-verified, oauth-verified, curator-vouched and unverified. The schemas use email, oauth, curator-vouched, unverified and cryptographic. Our JSON follows the schemas; the screen shows words.
9. The handshake window (§5.2). The spec says the 14-day window is “configurable per Pool”. The manifest has no field for it, so our Pool carries it in each request’s expires_at and says so in governance_rules.
10. Message types (§6.3). The spec lists four types. kindling_message.schema.json has six, adding withdrawal and system. Pulling your card sends a withdrawal.
11. Messaging rule names (§7.2). The spec names open-to-all, pool-mates-only, vouched-only, no-cold-messages and minimum-sender-verification. The profile schema has accept_from and a no_cold_messages flag, and only a Pool can set a minimum sender level.
12. Noindex is not privacy (§2.7). kindling_noindex: true means “don’t put me in any Pool”. Privacy inside a Pool comes from its visibility.