AD4M

What is AD4M and what is it for?

AD4M is software you run on your own computer that holds your identity and information, so the connections you make between things stay with you across separate apps. It exists so people keep that context instead of losing it when they switch tools.

In 2018, Nicolas Luck wrote about an internet where people could move among independently built applications without losing the connections between them. From work in 2020 with the Junto team — which had a centralized app and wanted to reach Holochain gradually without breaking what already worked — came his realization that a person's own links between information in different apps could become the foundation of a shared system. He began a prototype that August.

AD4M's documented design puts your identity and information on your own computer, and separate applications connect to it instead of each keeping its own silo. A group can choose to share a space, so that space is not owned by any one app. The project presents this as the intended benefit — it is a design, not a record of wide adoption.

The current repository names two examples built on AD4M: Flux, a social application, and We, a workspace. Flux grew out of the Junto team's side project, which was built on this work. The repository at github.com/coasys/ad4m and the documentation at docs.ad4m.dev are where to read the design and follow what is being built.

From 3 public sources, checked 22 September 2026.