📍Mission District

bookmark this post - the BBC will create their own social media platform - potentially over AT Proto - and it will be credibly neutal, accountable, democratic and awesome

From The Information today. We'll be seeing a lot more of this locking down of data. App-makers are reacting to the threat of a new, intelligent software environment in which apps aren't as important. It's not just the context wars, it's the app vs. environment wars.

Listening to this episode all I could think was - my *gosh* they sound amazing - I would SO love to work alongside them @goblinoats.com @grjte.sh Blessed moment

ZK Hack@zkhack.dev · last yr.

The ZK Podcast released an episode on local-first software this week! @arro.bsky.social and @nicomnbl.bsky.social chat w @grjte.sh & @goblinoats.com about the foundations of local-first architecture, CRDTs and how ZK can be incorporated into these models. zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/367/

I'll be representing @tonklabs.bsky.social's work supporting creative technologists at this roundtable in Shoreditch, London, next week. Come through! And thanks for hosting Restless Egg

Vibe Coders LDN was 🔥 20 lightning demos over healthy poké in Hoxton – games, LinkedIn hacks, workflow agents, “second brains” & more – all vibe-coded by founders, devs, dropouts, VCs. One legend built a game from scratch _during_ the show.

now I use ChatGPT whenever I need to get an em-dash to copy-paste

We’ve quietly built Tonk, an alpha-stage CLI tool that makes it simple to build custom dashboards, apps, and AI agents using your own data—minus the backend headaches. Quick intro 🧵👇

"How can users tweak the existing tools they’ve installed, rather than just making new siloed applications? How can AI-generated tools compose with one another to build up larger workflows over shared data?"

Ink & Switch@inkandswitch.com · last yr.

Malleable software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps www.inkandswitch.com/essay/mallea...

Ok, so vibe coding is officially going from viral to mainstream. So many people have sent me this FT article today. I sit down every day with vibe coders - in startups, enterprise or just tinkering in their garage - here's what I notice:

Excited longterm for the finegrained composability and interoperability that comes from multiplayer operating systems Walled gardens and enshittification is so 2010s This room is unbelievably cracked Local First Conf Berlin 2025

reflection: an underrated, nonskeuomorphic use-case for AI is what I think of as "world-familiarisation" or "world navigation" "world" in the sense of a social world - the fashion world, the art world, the tech world, the politics world

👾 Londoners 👾 I’m hosting a one-off event: Vibe Coders London For people building weird, beautiful, personal software with AI. 🗓️ June 11 📍 Hoxton 🎤 Demos + vibes + smart creative folks 🧠 ~25 curated spots

The @tonklabs.bsky.social thesis. The platform era (2010-2024) > Platforms provided amazing services, but private network effects centralised and siloed data, creating centralisation overhead: lock-in, cost, inconvenience.

I saw Tim Berners-Lee's NeXT box when I visited CERN and what blows my mind is the faded torn sticker saying "This machine is a server DO NOT POWER IT DOWN". There was some point in time that was the only web server on Earth. "Do NOT turn this computer off the World Wide Web is on it"

CERN@cern.bsky.social · last yr.

#OnThisDay in 1993, CERN released the World Wide Web software to the public. Proposed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the web was originally created to allow scientists and institutes working on CERN data to share information accurately and quickly from across the globe. #WorldWideWeb

From user generated content to user generated apps

PSA: I've done an investigative deep dive and decided my top ranking of innovation scenes in London - i.e. the places in this city where you'll find the most talented & hardworking people working at the most dynamic frontiers: 🇬🇧 🌳 🫖 🇬🇧 🌳 🫖 🇬🇧 🌳 🫖

Trying out the new S*bstack shortform reel generator:

New @tonklabs.bsky.social Product Demo: myWorld The Tonk stack helps developers use AI to build multiplayer apps fast and plug them into your data while keeping maximum control, privacy and flexibilty over your information.

Ok, feeling the momentum now. Catch @goblinoats.bsky.social in the U&A Discord at 5pm GMT / 10am PST to walk you through the @tonklabs.bsky.social stack and a chance to do some Q&A discord.com/invite/mtEwu...

ART IN THE MACHINE: a series. Technology without soul is just utility. From day one, we've infused our work with creative spirit—drawing from fine art and fashion to build tech that resonates beyond function. This week, we'll share our influences before unveiling new directions!

I love this from @timbl.bsky.social www.w3.org/DesignIssues...

> be me > yawny stretch in bed after good shleep > rub face, think about what @tonklabs.bsky.social demo apps I should post today > check phone > open tonk community chat > "oh neat someone in the community built a demo with Tonk's stack for fun when i was asleep" > bliss

The team at @tonklabs.bsky.social is developing an interoperable, private network of datastores, to service the fragmentation of state resulting from the proliferation of billions of cheap, niche, personal apps and workflows built with AI.

MCP is great & all but we're just scratching the surface when it comes to questions of where data will live and how it will move around when there are billions of little AIs helping you Our first bet is that traditional databases are just way too cumbersome and icky as a way to handle shared data

Rebranding! Wanted both my personal profile and Tonk to be more comprehensible, more user-focussed and (a bit) more mature. tonk.xyz

Tonk - Build your own little internet with Tinyfoot

Tinyfoot is a copilot-friendly framework for building grassroots apps on decentralised, interoperable, private data stores. Perfect for personal apps that stay independent, flexible & discreet.

tonk.xyz

Spent today churning through all of @tonklabs.bsky.social's websites, social media etc to be more comprehensible We spent 2 years in a niche technical crowd & it was awesome but it's time to move on I will miss our demoscene aesethetic - saving it here for posterity web.archive.org/web/20250312...

Onboarding into Flashes gave me the same feeling of permissionless composability that got me so excited about blockchain and web3 But without the worse aspects of crypto Woohoo!

Colorado, February 2025

Onward!

Tonk@tonk.xyz · last yr.

Tonk is a London-based startup. We're building tools so that creative people can have their own little internet.