Is the Activist's Engine really free?

Yes. It is free of charge and it is free software under AGPL-3.0. No account, no e-mail address, no card. Copy it, host it, change it, hand it to anyone.

Does it send any campaign data anywhere?

No. It is a single HTML file with no network calls. You can pull your network cable before opening it and it works exactly the same.

How do I verify the copy I was given?

Compare the SHA-256 fingerprints published on this page against your files: shasum -a 256 -c CHECKSUMS.txt on macOS or Linux, certutil -hashfile on Windows. A mismatch means the file was altered.

Can I run it with nothing stored on the machine?

Yes. A switch in the Files tab turns storage off entirely, erases anything already stored, and leaves nothing behind when the tab closes. Export your work before you finish.

The Activist's Engine: a free campaign HQ in one file

Organising work is the kind of work that should never live on someone else's server. The Activist's Engine is one file: a campaign brief, a theory of change, milestones across three phases, actions scored against effort, stakeholders mapped, sprints planned. No account, no installation, no internet. Nothing is sent anywhere, because there is nowhere for it to go.

The file carries a Content-Security-Policy setting connect-src 'none'. That instructs the browser to refuse every network request regardless of what the code attempts, so this is not a promise you have to take on trust. Your browser enforces it, and you can read the line yourself in the first twenty lines of the file.

It is licensed AGPL-3.0. Copy it, host it, change it, teach with it, hand it to anyone. This one belongs to the movement rather than to us.

The source is the file itself, and it also lives on GitHub, because AGPL-3.0 asks that anyone distributing this can get at the source easily. If you only want to use the engine, take the release zip below; GitHub is where the source is read, not where the tool is run from.

Try it, then keep it

Open the live copy Download the release (.zip) Read the manual The threat model

One HTML file · AGPL-3.0 · works offline · nothing to install · v2.0

Checksums, published

This tool is meant to travel by hand: forwarded, copied to sticks, hosted on drives. That is the point, and it is also the risk, because a single HTML file is easy to alter. Below are the SHA-256 fingerprints of every file as published, so you can check the copy you were handed against a source other than the folder it came in.

34333ee031cd72f58b3325fedb8347101ee6e8959b26b5aca2b74c967a6d11de The_Activist_s_Engine.html a02bd653b7ca634756492364402f0e0f26f8d8c6b035c95a343a76819a9972af Activists_Engine_Manual_v2.0.md 4dd23e67fffbd4e7d3f1512641a0acabfcb50dab250a423459f9454d827036ea Activists_Engine_Manual_v2_0.pdf 8060faa7cc681f83c63ca9bfd2389565df373bea5cc8620c874ae58d761b4625 Activists_Engine_Manual_v2_0_Print.pdf b3d67d194aa16ac1527207284e5afb9811909ff2b90662adc3fa65df828758f3 README.txt 82437ecd286b6b9687f1c493468ed194596dd5c34ad0a9bf4fce0208799b1d3b LICENSE.txt 85c2d41c04014241cfcac49f36ef99bc7acb1fbb3672eaccb4c55948a5c97c30 THREAT-MODEL.txt 3846081d1333c2f68cd0af9a67ed07eb5396a7716170271ed4e498b216a5abed VERIFY.txt 0d96a4ff68ad6d4b6f1f30f713b18d5184912ba8dd389f86aa7710db079abcb0 COPYING 051141f3188bc52b289a70763e441d0ec19b1b4928a99cbc1cdcde3924c90b2e sample_berlin_tenants.json cc32c4868675c924b6fdfc9b091f36599ceea81db334433ceb07116a7356a65d sample_memphis_labor.json 552d9725825d143dbb4f25349fc0163154092db91702ba73e509b05320e3397b sample_oakland_climate.json

On macOS or Linux: shasum -a 256 -c CHECKSUMS.txt. On Windows: certutil -hashfile The_Activist_s_Engine.html SHA256, then compare the line by eye. If a fingerprint does not match, something changed the file. Do not trust it. The plain files: CHECKSUMS.txt and VERIFY.txt.

What is in the release

The_Activist_s_Engine.html: the engine itself, complete in one file.
THREAT-MODEL.txt: what this protects you from and what it does not. Read it first if your campaign carries any risk.
Activists_Engine_Manual_v2.0: the full manual, in Markdown and two PDFs (screen and print).
CHECKSUMS.txt and VERIFY.txt: fingerprints, and how to check them in one command.
LICENSE.txt and COPYING: AGPL-3.0, plus a plain-words explanation.
Three sample campaigns: a climate coalition in Oakland, tenant rights in Berlin, a union drive in Memphis. Import one to see the engine full of real work.

There is a switch in the Files tab that turns off storage entirely: nothing written to the machine, anything already stored erased, and closing the tab leaves nothing behind. Export before you finish.

Exports can be encrypted with AES-256-GCM, using the browser's own Web Crypto and a passphrase of at least twelve characters. A short passphrase is not encryption, so the tool refuses one. There is no recovery: if you lose the passphrase, the file is gone, and that is the point.

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