Aura · The product

The same six surfaces, in the order they matter.

Each panel below is an Aura surface rendered at the density the client renders it, using the client's own palette, spacing, radii and typed states. The rules described beside each one are enforced in the running product, not illustrated for effect.

The names, text and timestamps are illustrative. The surfaces, states and rules are the product's own. · Product brief

01 · A person publishes

One identity, stated capacity, no audience score.

PublicUnified feed
NA
Nadia Aslam @nadia · 4h

The bus lane consultation closed three weeks ago and the summary still is not published. Asking here because the last two email replies went to different departments and neither referenced the other.

Transport Local government
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SO
Sofia Okonjo @sofia Institution admin · 6h

Speaking for myself here, not for the office: the two-inbox problem is real and we have raised it internally.

React Reply

Capacity is on the record

Nadia is speaking personally, so no capacity chip appears. The absence is the statement: a chip only shows when someone is speaking as an institution's member, admin, or officially on its behalf.

Holding a role is not speaking for it

Sofia is an institution admin, and her post is still personal. The chip states the role she holds; publishing officially is a separate act with a separate grant.

Nothing counts an audience

There is no follower count, no reach figure, no ranking score on this card or anywhere else in the client. Reactions carry a typed breakdown; they do not confer standing.

Topics route, they do not rank

Transport and Local government place this publication where it concerns people. They are not tags competing for a recommendation model's attention.

Translation happens where the reader is

In place, inside the conversation, with attribution to the original author intact.

02 · Discourse keeps its context

A reply belongs to what it answers.

The context travels with the reply

The parent is carried on the card itself. Reading the reply later does not depend on scrolling back far enough, or on the parent still being surfaced anywhere.

Threads and Spaces are different things

A Thread holds a conversation's context. A Space holds the people who share one. The product keeps the two nouns distinct because collapsing them is how context is lost.

Member is a status, not an identity

Ibrahim is one Person who holds a membership. The chip states the membership; it does not become who he is.

PublicThread
IK
Ibrahim Khan @ibrahim Member · 2h
Replying to @nadia
The bus lane consultation closed three weeks ago and the summary still is not published…

Both replies exist in the correspondence record — different departments, same case. That is the thing worth fixing, not the delay.

4 Reply Save

03 · The institution enters

Official speech is visually load-bearing.

An Announcement is not a post with a badge. It carries a heavier accent edge, an OFFICIAL eyebrow with its statement type, and the authority that permitted it.

PublicInstitution
OFFICIAL • ANNOUNCEMENT NEW
RC
Riverside City Official · 3h

Bus lane consultation — summary and next steps

The consultation summary is published today, with the two departmental responses reconciled into one case record. Objections raised after the closing date are listed separately and answered in full.

Issued by the Transport Office · approved by a named officer

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The authority is named, not implied

An institution's official statement passes a human approval before it exists publicly. Who approved it is part of the publication, not a log entry somewhere else.

Authority is granted per capability

Publishing officially, approving, and admitting to a session are separate grants. A person can hold one without the others, and any of them can be withdrawn without dismantling the institution's presence.

The heavier edge is a rule, not a style

1.5px against 1px, in the accent colour at 45% — the client draws institutional speech differently on purpose, so it is never mistaken for chat.

04 · Time decay

An old statement stops competing with a new one.

The same Announcement, unchanged, at three ages. Within 24 hours it reads at full intensity. Between 24 and 72 hours the accent calms. Past 72 hours the edge returns to a plain divider. Nothing is hidden and nothing is deleted — the institution's newest statement simply carries the weight.

OFFICIAL • ANNOUNCEMENT NEW
RC
Riverside City Official · 3h

Bus lane consultation — summary and next steps

The consultation summary is published today, with the two departmental responses reconciled into one case record.

3 hours old
FRESH
Accent border alpha0.45
Eyebrow opacity1.00
NEW chipshown
≤24h · 0.45 24–72h · 0.28 >72h · divider

Attention decays without animation, without a notification, and without moving anything. The OFFICIAL eyebrow keeps its legibility at every age — only its intensity changes.

05 · Correspondence

The formal exchange, with an outcome.

Correspondence is not messaging

It is the governed formal form: a deliberate exchange that keeps its thread, its participants, and the state it reached. The distinction is architectural, not a difference in tone.

The institution answers as itself

The reply carries the office that sent it and the person who authorised it. A department cannot answer anonymously, and two departments cannot answer the same case without the case knowing.

It reaches a state, and stops

An exchange that resolves says so. The record then continues to exist, attributable, rather than scrolling out of reach.

CorrespondenceCase 4417
Nadia Aslam
Two replies, two departments, neither referencing the other. Which one is the answer of record?
Riverside City · Transport Office
Both are on the case. The reconciled answer is the consultation summary published today; the earlier replies are superseded and marked so.
RESOLVED Answered by the Transport Office · authorised by a named officer

06 · Meetings & Live

Admission is a decision, not a default.

LiveSelf-hosted
Riverside City · Transport Office SPEAKING
Nadia Aslam MUTED
One person is waiting to be admitted.
Ibrahim Khan requested to join. Admission is recorded against the session either way.
Admit Decline

Live is a mode, not a separate product

A live session is a governed state of an existing Thread or Space. What was said before it, and what is decided in it, stay in the same record.

Self-hosted, so governance holds

Sessions run on Aura's own realtime infrastructure rather than a third-party meetings provider. Admission, recording consent and participation stay under the same authority as everything else.

The outcome is recorded either way

Admitted or declined, the decision and who made it belong to the session's record. Refusal is a first-class outcome, not a missing entry.