About

The Terrene Foundation is an independent organization that publishes open governance infrastructure for autonomous systems. It maintains three specifications (CARE, EATP, CO), builds the open-source software that implements them, and operates under a constitution designed to prevent capture by any single contributor.

Mission

Open standards, working software, and institutional infrastructure that enable organizations to govern autonomous systems credibly. Every philosophical claim is backed by a verifiable artifact: a constitutional clause, a specification section, or a code repository.

Founder

The Foundation was established by Dr. Jack Hong. His background is in business (Singapore Management University) and his work addresses a gap he identified between corporate governance (designed for humans) and AI governance (largely theoretical). He created the CARE framework, the EATP protocol, and the CO methodology, and built the Kailash platform that implements them.

All intellectual property was fully and irrevocably transferred to the Foundation at incorporation. The founder contributes as an individual, governed by the constitution like any other contributor. He holds council positions on ASME and SBF, which are disclosed as potential conflicts of interest and managed through constitutional governance structures.

Contact: jack@terrene.foundation

Legal entity


Legal name	Terrene Foundation Limited
Type	Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG)
Jurisdiction	Singapore
UEN	202611556G
Governing law	Singapore Companies Act 1967
Registered office	Singapore

The CLG structure prevents profit distribution. The Foundation cannot pay dividends, distribute surplus to members or directors, or convert to a for-profit entity. These restrictions are entrenched provisions in the constitution 11 entrenched clauses .

Current phase

The Foundation is in Phase 1 (Seed): the founding period during which initial specifications are drafted, reference implementations are built, and governance structures are established. During this phase, the founding director serves as the primary steward.

Phase 2 (Growth) begins when either 10 Committer Members are admitted or the Foundation receives its first Corporate Sponsorship or Institutional Partnership. See Membership for details.

What makes Terrene distinct

Five structural properties, not marketing claims:

Foundational theory: A formal argument (extending Fama-Jensen 1983) demonstrating that credible AI governance requires organizational governance. Not principles. A proof.
Open standards: Three interlocking specifications (CARE for philosophy, EATP for trust verification, CO for methodology) published under CC BY 4.0 SPDX . Anyone can implement them.
Working software: Reference implementations (Kailash Python SDK with 140+ nodes, CARE Platform, EATP SDK, Praxis) under Apache 2.0 SPDX . The specifications are not theoretical. They run.
Constitutional governance: A 77-clause constitution UEN 202611556G with 11 entrenched provisions, filed with ACRA Singapore. The governance is structural, not aspirational.
Self-hosting: The Foundation operates under its own standards. The AI agent team works within constitutional constraints. The Foundation is the first implementation of the Constrained Organization concept it proposes.

Intellectual property

All Foundation IP is irrevocably transferred upon contribution. No contributor retains exclusive rights, special access, or structural advantage. See Licensing for the complete license table.