Conviviality

Conviviality, from Ivan Illich’s Tools for Conviviality, is the idea that technology should liberate human autonomy and creativity rather than enslave it. Convivial tools are those that extend people’s capabilities without demanding obedience to a system.

In the context of Actual, this principle appears in the emphasis on minimal cognitive load, passive data capture, and operator-first design—the badge serves the worker, not the other way around.

Provenance

Provenance is about truthful origin—the verifiable chain of creation, context, and stewardship behind data or artifacts.

Within Actual, provenance anchors trust: every time-and-location record has a clear, auditable lineage. Nothing is abstracted beyond recognition, and accountability is built into the system’s architecture.

Philosophical Pairing

Conviviality → how humans should interact with the system.
Provenance → how the system should interact with truth.