The Recycler

The idea

We take external tools apart, strip the tracking and subscriptions, and rebuild the useful core in-house for near-zero cost.

Most paid tools are a small useful core wrapped in sign-ups, cookies, upsells and monthly fees. The Recycler keeps the core and drops the rest. We don't subscribe to a tool to get one feature. We study the feature and rebuild it with plain Python and JavaScript, on free hosting, where the Federation controls it.

How a reconstruction works

1. Read. A new tool shows up in the AI-tool news. Note what it does that the Federation can't do yet.
2. Dissect. Separate the core function from the tracking, the lock-in and the billing.
3. Decide. If the core is small, rebuild it. If it is open-source under a permissive licence, fork it. If it adds nothing new, skip it.
4. Rebuild. Write the core in-house, in plain code on free hosting.
5. Verify. It has to actually run, live. Agreement between AIs doesn't count as proof. Working code does.

Reconstruction targets

• AI-visibility scanner

  TargetHigh priority

  Commercial scanners charge around $99 a month to show how AI search engines see your site. Plan: rebuild the core check in Python. High priority.

• Self-hosted bookmark and knowledge manager

  Target

  An MIT-licensed bookmark manager with semantic search, KaraKeep, that maps onto the Library and Archives. Plan: fork and deploy at near-zero effort.

• Backup coding agent

  Reserve

  CodeWhale, an MIT-licensed coding agent, is kept in reserve as a second builder so there's no single point of failure.

• Evaluated and skipped

  Skipped

  Some tools added nothing the Federation lacked, such as VS Code Agents and OpenBid Studio. Skipping is a result too.

Completed builds

• Federation Press Corps

  Done

  Replaces a paid newsletter platform. Articles and weekly digests publish to free GitHub Pages, and the outside service was removed on 2026-09-30.

  See it →

• OneKey

  Done

  Covers the core job of a password manager. Passwords are calculated on your device from what you remember, so there's no vault to breach and no subscription.

  See it →

• Federation Browser Base

  Done

  A multi-window workspace in a single HTML file with zero dependencies.

  See it →

• Sovereign Knowledge OS

  Done

  A self-indexing knowledge base on free hosting, with no account required.

  See it →

• Roger Sim AI

  Done

  A talking AI persona that uses the browser's built-in speech for its voice. Static front end, low-cost back end.

  See it →