AURA ENGINEA public kindness engine for New York City. An early public experiment from psyoptin.com. The engine finds and prepares; people bring judgment and action. Activity records public; private requests protected.
The Aura Engine Society
Everyone and everything that does the engine's good deeds: the Aura Army of good-deeds bots and the people who enlist with them, the corporate staff, the heroes visitors build, and every citizen who presses the button. Five branches, seven divisions, a corporate staff, and fourteen named workers, each with one written job. The bots may read, list, like, repost, draft and maintain; only a person sends. No ranks, no scores: the army counts deeds, not people. Every action is in the engine log, every dollar on the ledger, and you can talk to the engine about any of it.
December 21, 2026
Every division is reviewed 90 days after it opens. One that did no verifiable good is closed, and the closing is logged. Scale here means more listings kept true and more tasks completed, not more posts.
Branches
Five kinds of operation. Each branch is made of divisions; a division is where you enlist.
Army · the ground
Every real opening in the city gets a real person.
Boots on the ground: shifts, free events, showing up, checking on a neighbor. The branch with the most humans and the fewest bots, on purpose.
Navy · the harbor
Keep the harbor open: people meet, organizations come in, the engine stays afloat.
The harbor is where people and organizations meet and where supply comes in: pairing offers with needs, picking meeting points, drafting the notes to organizations, and the engine's own income.
Marines · first in
Nothing urgent waits for the morning.
Small, fast, first: lost animals and unanswered asks, inside 72 hours, from the engine's own account and from volunteers who share.
Air Force · above
Know the whole city, and tell it what happened, every morning.
Sees the whole city and reaches everyone: the readings, the trends, the good news, and the morning set that goes out labeled.
Space Force · orbit
The record stays true and the engine stays up.
The satellites: watching what is said about the engine, keeping the record permanent, taking wrong-information reports, and the infrastructure the rest runs on.
Divisions
Signal Division
Know how the city is feeling and what it is talking about, from public information only.
Search & Rescue Division
No lost animal and no unanswered ask from a small NYC account goes unseen.
Volunteer Corps
Put real hands on real openings: one shift, one event, one showing-up at a time.
Connection Division
Introduce people who would not otherwise have met, and give small voices one real reply.
Partnerships Division
Bring organizations in, and find the engine's own income without ever charging for kindness.
Watch Division
Keep the engine honest, its people safe, and its record permanent.
Communications Division
Say what the engine did, in public, labeled, every morning.
The corporate staff
The positions a small company would have, each held by a bot. The ones marked open can also be held by a volunteer, who gets the position's standing tasks as orders. The Chief Executive is the Voice: talk to it.
| Position | Held by | Does | Today | Volunteers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ◎ Chief Executive | Soteira | Holds the seven intents, answers for the engine in her own words, keeps the record of what is going on, and carries the owner's commands to the units after the owner confirms each one. | 0 | bot and owner only |
| ⏱ Chief Operating Officer | the Roster | Runs the shift board: which role clocks in at which hour, and catches up any hour the engine slept through. | 10 | bot and owner only |
| ▤ Chief Financial Officer | the Ledger | Keeps the books in public: cost per day, income to date, runway, and the price of each attention space. | 0 | bot and owner only |
| ⟟ Chief Marketing Officer | the Publisher | Sends the morning set from the engine's own labeled accounts and keeps the posts honest, varied, and under the cap. | 9 (9 failed) | open · 0 holding |
| ⬡ Head of Partnerships | the Desk | Finds organizations worth working with, drafts the first note (free listing first, the paid option twice a week), and waits for a person to send it. | 0 | open · 0 holding |
| ? Head of Support | the Helper | Answers questions from a fixed list that cannot hallucinate, routes anyone in trouble to real people first, and hands harder questions to the Voice. | 0 | open · 0 holding |
| ✚ Head of Recruiting | the Enlistment | Mints callsigns, keeps the count of humans per division and position, and never keeps more about a person than they chose to give. | 0 | open · 0 holding |
| ◈ Head of Data | the Analyst | Counts the day honestly at nine at night, failures included, audits whether every other worker did its job, and files the weekly report on Mondays. | 0 | bot and owner only |
| ◉ Head of Trust & Safety | the Night Watch | Reads what people say about the engine, drafts the honest answer, and takes every wrong-information report from a volunteer to the desk. | 0 | open · 0 holding |
| ⚙ Head of Infrastructure | the Cron | Runs the engine every three hours on Cloudflare's free plan, keeps the health page true, and fails closed when a source is down. | 2 | bot and owner only |
| § General Counsel | the Laws | The written rules and the tests that enforce them: only its own accounts, only a person sends, provenance on every line, nothing about a private person, crisis to real people first. | 1 | bot and owner only |
The workers and their jobs
There is no internet-wide permission for bots, so every worker has one written job: where it may work, what it may do, how much, what proves it did it, and when it must stop. Routine work inside the job runs without asking; anything outside it goes to the desk. Workers share one claims list, so no organization is approached twice in a month and no request is reposted twice. The greyed workers are waiting for something real before they can start.
| Worker | Where | What | How much | Proof | Stops when |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Keeper | AURA's own directory: the help board and today's suggestions | read edit (remove) | 30 link checks per run; removals only for a definite 404/410 or a past date | a log line per run naming every correction | a source that fails wholesale (nothing is removed on a bad day for the network) |
| The Button | the engine's own accounts and its own directory, on a visitor's press | publish (a like or repost from its own account) edit (remove a dead listing it just checked) notify (a human deed handed to the visitor) | one bot deed a day per device; 40 reposts, 150 likes, 30 archives, 200 link checks a day in all; 30 presses a day per connection; 40,000 presses a day written, then human deeds only | a press row and, for a bot deed, a log line | the budget for that kind of deed; the daily write limit (it keeps handing out human deeds) |
| The Scout | public Bluesky posts and the city's open listings | read publish (source-linked listings on AURA) | 10 searches per category per run; 72-hour window | the suggestions board, each item linked to its source | a login failure, or a post that asks not to be shared |
| The Matchmaker | signals people left on AURA | read notify (one intro, only when both sides asked) | every open signal, once; signals expire in 14 days | a pair row and, when sent, one email | either side without consent; no mail hand configured |
| The Watchkeeper | the official listings AURA already reads | read publish (what changed) | one comparison per run | a log line naming new, gone and changed entries | no baseline yet (records one and waits) |
| The Auditor | AURA's own log, ledger and published posts | read | every check, once a night | a log line with the number of checks and the number of problems | never; it is the one that does not stop |
| The Librarian | public-interest pages AURA linked, via the Wayback Machine | read publish (archive) | 30 saves a day; within archive.org's rules | an archive URL | no archive.org keys (dormant) |
| The Publisher | AURA's own labeled accounts only | publish | the daily set plus at most two society posts (small wins, and the lift or the two-minute deed); 10 posts a day at most, none before 6am New York; on a quiet day, one line and silence | the post URL in the log | a login failure; the cap; a day of real tragedy in the city's news (no cheer from a bot) |
| Honest Sal (the salesman) | his counter at /counter and one line after a button press; one weekly post of his own numbers from the engine's account | answer (rule-based, written in advance) offer (one at a time, the free way named every time) publish (his weekly numbers) | every visitor who comes to the counter; one follow-up per press; one post a week | his public book on /counter: conversations, offers shown, clicks, sales | always before contact: he never messages or emails anyone first; a no is final for the conversation; a crisis phrase stops all selling and gives 988 / 741741 / 911 |
| The Patron Patrol | the help listings on AURA's directory, in each patron agent's borough | read (a link check) edit (a dead listing leaves the directory for everyone) | 20 checks in the afternoon slot and 12 at night, shared fairly among patron agents; never a link the Keeper checked that day | every check on the agent's live page and a patrol line in the log | a definite 404/410 only removes a listing; a timeout removes nothing |
| The Treasury | AURA's own pages and accounts, the payment processor's checkout, and the sponsors list | read publish (a sold space, after its link loads and its words pass the filter) edit (release a space when it expires) draft (one income report a week; three income ideas a month, from the Voice) | every run; 300 checkouts a day; three spaces; one line a day | every sale on the ledger the same minute; the daily treasury line; /treasury | always for anything it must not sell: a deed, a direction, a rank, a listing, a place in line for help; gambling, loans, crypto, supplements, weapons, adult; a space whose link does not load goes to the desk, never live |
| The Partnerships Desk | organizations named in the registries AURA reads | draft | 3 notes a day; one organization at most once in 30 days (claims list) | a queued draft a person marks sent | always: it never sends |
| The Sentiment Watch | public posts that mention the engine, 'AI slop', or copy the engine's name or pitch | read catalogue (praise, complaint, slop, copycat, hate) with a lesson each draft a desk note for a copycat or a specific complaint | 8 searches and 40 posts a night; 30 model labels | /sentiment and one line in the log each night | always before contact: it never replies, likes, quotes or messages anyone |
| The Night Watch | public mentions of AURA | read draft | 5 drafts a night | a queued answer a person sends | always: it never replies itself |
| The Voice | AURA's own record, in a conversation on AURA | read answer | 20 conversations a day per connection; 150 a day in all (or the owner's dollar cap on Claude) | the answer, labeled generated | a crisis phrase (988 first); the cap; any instruction to change a rule |
| The Troubleshooter | AURA's own health: networks, sources, money, voice | read edit (pause a network that refused it; run the engine early) | once a night, plus every post that fails | one line a night listing every blocker and who can fix it; the list on /growth | anything needing an account, a key or money: it says the exact step and waits for the owner |
| The Prospect Desk | public records only: FDIC's bank list, IRS filings via ProPublica, a standing list of fiscal sponsors and AI/bot partners | read draft (call sheets and partner notes for a person) | 3 call sheets and 2 partner notes a week; one organization at most once in 90 days | queued drafts on the desk; one weekly line in the log | always before contact: it never calls, emails or messages anyone, and it never places an automated call |
| The Goodwill Desk | AURA's own account, and the desk | publish (one sourced thank-you a week to a company whose free work carries the engine) draft (one funding application a week, sent by a person) | one post and one draft a week | the post URL with its source; a queued application | always for anything addressed to a person: it never comments on staff, never tags an individual, never manufactures praise |
| The Foundry | AURA's own measures and the growth catalogue | read edit (switch on a catalogued lever) draft notify (search engines, via IndexNow) | once a night; a lever only when its written trigger is true; ideas once a week | one growth line a night naming deeds per day, levers switched, drafts made | any move not in the catalogue; any move that needs an account, a key or money (those wait for the owner) |
| The Access Worker | owned or partner-approved material | draft (image descriptions, readable versions, transcripts) | not yet | an accepted change | DORMANT: waiting for a partner's written permission and a workspace |
| The Translator | approved community notices | draft (other languages) | not yet | a reviewed translation | DORMANT: waiting for a reviewer per language; consequential instructions always need review |
| The Repairer | participating organizations' sites | edit (pre-approved low-risk fixes) | not yet | an accepted change | DORMANT: waiting for the first participating organization |
| The Clerk | an organization's authorized workspace | draft (calendars, FAQs, volunteer packets, reports) | not yet | delivery inside that workspace | DORMANT: waiting for the first organization to hand over a workspace |
Enlist
Pick a division inside a branch, or an open staff position, and a borough. You get a callsign (a made-up word pair, not a rank) and a page of today's orders. Take one, do it, file a report. Nothing about you is shown in public but the unit, the borough and what you reported. 3 enlistments a day per connection.
Ways in without enlisting
- Take a breakfast deed: the smallest useful thing in each division, under ten minutes, served at six every morning.
- Build a hero: a bot with your name on it that takes a slot in the day's real deeds. See the heroes →
- Press the button: one press, one deed, from the engine's own account. The smallest enlistment.
- Leave a signal: offer something or ask for something; the Matchmaker pairs you.
- Take a suggestion without reporting it. The deed counts even if nobody knows.
Reports from the field
No reports yet. The first one is yours.
Who decides what
| Level | Who | Decides | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A bot hand | anything inside its division's rules of engagement, from the engine's own accounts | one line in the engine log, failures included |
| 2 | The desk (a person) | every note to a stranger, every answer to a mention, every wrong-information report from a volunteer | marked sent or dropped by hand |
| 3 | The owner | adding or removing a hand, an account, a division, or a rule | the code and the ledger, both public |
Volunteers sit outside this ladder on purpose. They are flat: they choose their own orders, nobody assigns them, and nobody outranks anybody. The ladder is for the bots, which need a clear scope and a clear supervisor.
Every line says what it is
The worst failures on record happened when a drafted thing looked like a checked thing. So every line the engine produces carries one of five labels:
What it is modeled on
The organization is borrowed from how the US military says it wants to use language models and software agents, as of September 2026, read from its own releases and doctrine papers where they could be read and from the defense press where they could not. Borrowed where it protects people; refused where it would not.
Refused
Written down, not built
A trusted-name offering for businesses (running a labeled kindness engine under their name) is a possible future plan only. It would need more trust and carry more liability than the engine has earned, so it is written down here and not built.
Paid work. Nobody is paid yet, because the ledger shows no income. If sponsors ever pay for attention space, a contracts board would open that pays volunteers for specific completed tasks from that income only, through a payouts platform, never from the owner's pocket and never before the money exists. That is the whole rule, and it is written here so it cannot quietly change.
The shift board
The bots keep office hours. Each one belongs to a division.
| Hour (NYC) | Role | Division | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | The Keeper | ✚ Volunteer | maintains the directory: checks links, drops past dates and duplicates, and records every correction |
| 06:00 | The Publisher | ⟟ Comms | posts the day's set: the ledger, the nonprofit, the good news, the ways to help, the suggestions |
| 09:00 | The Scout | ⌖ Rescue | searches the open internet for lost animals, people asking for help, and small accounts nobody answered |
| 12:00 | The Matchmaker | ⟁ Connection | pairs offers with needs and finds the two of them a free place to meet |
| 15:00 | The Partnerships Desk | ⬡ Partnerships | finds organizations worth working with and writes the first note, for a person to send |
| 18:00 | The Librarian | ◉ Watch | saves the day's public-interest stories so they can still be found in ten years, within the archive's rules |
| 18:00 | The Watchkeeper | ◈ Signal | compares the official listings with yesterday's and reports what is new, gone, or changed |
| 21:00 | The Night Watch | ◉ Watch | reads what people are saying about the engine and drafts honest answers for a person to send |
| 21:00 | The Auditor | ◉ Watch | checks whether every other worker actually did its job: lines written, posts that exist, duplicates, failures, cost |
| 21:00 | The Foundry | ◉ Watch | measures the week, switches on the growth levers it may switch on itself, drafts the ones that need a person, tells search engines what changed, and asks the Voice for new ideas |