Coordination platform connecting mutual aid groups with fund hubs—safely, quickly, and without collecting individual recipient data.
Relay is a minimal coordination layer that enables local mutual aid groups to connect with centralized fund hubs. It solves a coordination, discovery, and trust problem—not a fundraising problem.
This is not:
- A case-management system
- A benefits application platform
- A donor-facing marketplace
- A surveillance-friendly database
- Group Registry — Private, invite-only registry of participating mutual aid groups
- Lightweight Verification — Trust establishment without invasive documentation
- Funding Requests — Group-level (not individual) funding request workflow
- Status Tracking — Simple payout status tracking (submitted → approved → sent → acknowledged)
- Aggregate Reporting — Hub-level metrics without per-person data
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Frontend | React + Vite + TypeScript + Tailwind CSS |
| Backend | Node.js + Express + TypeScript |
| Database | PostgreSQL |
| Infrastructure | AWS (Fargate, RDS) + Terraform |
| CI/CD | GitHub Actions |
/frontend # React + Vite application
/backend # Express API server
/infra # Terraform configurations
/docs # Project documentation
Prerequisites:
- Node.js 20+
- Docker
- PostgreSQL (local) or Docker Compose
# Install dependencies
npm install
# Start development servers
npm run devRelay is designed with privacy and safety as core constraints:
- No individual recipient data — The system cannot collect PII about aid recipients
- Group-level only — All operations are at the mutual aid group level
- Data minimization — Collect only what's explicitly needed
- Short retention — Request details are purged after defined periods
- Assume subpoena risk — Architecture assumes any stored data could be legally compelled
See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
See CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md.
See SECURITY.md for reporting vulnerabilities.
This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0).
This means if you modify Relay and provide it as a service over a network, you must make your modified source code available under the same license.