Is who still maintained?

The signs are against it: the public repository shows a single contributor, one star and no open issues, and hAppRadar's activity panel records no pushes to it after October 2021. Treat the project as a historical experiment rather than maintained software.

Can I install and run who?

No end-user download or release is documented. The README offers developer instructions only — install a Holochain development environment, clone the repository, enter a nix shell, assemble the DNA and package a web-happ — and those steps target the Holochain tooling of the same period, so no currently installable app is described here.

What is "we" in that description?

We is a Holochain runtime from the same organisation, made for groups to build collaboration spaces by composing small apps called applets, each group and applet being its own private peer-to-peer network. who was written as a test app in that context.

Project · profiles

who

Name: who
Author: lightningrodlabs

a test app for personas and profilesExperimental personas and profiles app for we

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How you run it: not recorded
Holochain version: 0.0.107
Activity: stalled
Checked: 27 October 2026

What is who and what is it for?

who is an experimental Holochain app from Lightningrod Labs, written as a test app for personas and profiles — the names, avatars and self-descriptions a person presents to the groups they belong to. It was built in the context of We, a group-collaboration runtime where small apps called applets plug into a shared private network.

who is an experimental Holochain app from Lightningrod Labs, a small project written to try out personas and profiles in the context of We. The README describes it plainly as a "test app for personas and profiles in the context of we", and the repository carries the same description as an "Experimental personas and profiles app for we". It was not presented as a finished product.

A profiles app answers a simple question inside a group: who is this person, and how do they want to be known? In this design a persona is the face someone presents in a given context — a name, an avatar, a short description — held by the person rather than assigned by the group. who was an early attempt to give the members of a We group that kind of shared, self-described identity.

The repository is the place to look, and what it documents is a developer path rather than an app to install: installing a Holochain development environment, entering a nix shell, assembling the DNA, trying the UI and packaging a web-happ called who.webhapp. The README's Background and Design sections are still empty and the repository's design document is an unwritten placeholder, so the README itself remains the fullest first-party description.

How to get it

As a library

Heads up: the steps below are the developer instructions recorded in the project README, not an end-user install. The project shows no activity since 2021 and the setup targets the Holochain tooling of that period, so this page does not present who as a currently installable app.
Install the Holochain development environment that the README points to at developer.holochain.org/docs/install.
Clone the repository from https://github.com/lightningrodlabs/who and change into it.
Enter the nix shell with nix-shell.
Assemble the DNA with npm run build:happ.
Try the UI with npm run start.
Package a web-happ with npm run package; the README says this leaves who.webhapp in workdir, with who.happ and ui.zip alongside.

Source: https://github.com/lightningrodlabs/who

Questions people ask

Is who still maintained?: The signs are against it: the public repository shows a single contributor, one star and no open issues, and hAppRadar's activity panel records no pushes to it after October 2021. Treat the project as a historical experiment rather than maintained software. source
Can I install and run who?: No end-user download or release is documented. The README offers developer instructions only — install a Holochain development environment, clone the repository, enter a nix shell, assemble the DNA and package a web-happ — and those steps target the Holochain tooling of the same period, so no currently installable app is described here. source
What is "we" in that description?: We is a Holochain runtime from the same organisation, made for groups to build collaboration spaces by composing small apps called applets, each group and applet being its own private peer-to-peer network. who was written as a test app in that context. source

From 3 public sources, checked 23 September 2026.

Try who

Code on GitHubOpen on GitHub ↗Last change 11 October 2021.
ReleaseNo GitHub release recorded.
The project's own files do not say how it is run.

Details & sources

Source: lightningrodlabs/who

Evidence

Last change: api.github.com/repos/lightningrodlabs/wholisted by a third party · seen since 20 October 2026 · github.repository@1
Activity: api.github.com/repos/lightningrodlabs/wholisted by a third party · seen since 20 October 2026 · liveness@1

Compatibility

hdk: 0.0.107 · dna/zomes/profiles/Cargo.toml @ 254728a
hdi: —
holochain-client: —
happ.yaml: present · dna/workdir/happ/happ.yaml @ 254728a
web-happ.yaml: present · workdir/web-happ.yaml @ 254728a

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