Joshternet

Aprašymas

The Joshternet is an open network for independent websites. Everyone is welcome: Joshes and non-Joshes are equal participants, with the same standing in the network. Being a Josh is not a requirement for joining.

A website should be able to say for itself that it participates in the network.

This plugin publishes the RFC-JOSH-0002 declaration at the origin-root URI:

/.well-known/josh

The smallest valid declaration is:

{"version":1}

Josh identity is optional and separate from participation. Affirming, declining, or leaving Josh identity undeclared does not change your status in the network. A Josh can publish:

{"version":1,"josh":true}

A non-Josh can participate equally and explicitly publish:

{"version":1,"josh":false}

Joshness is declared, never derived.

The declaration endpoint is served through WordPress. The plugin does not create a physical .well-known file, change Apache or Nginx configuration, add telemetry, register accounts, or require JavaScript.

Optional shortcode [joshternet_button]: WordPress may query the Joshternet Button State service for this origin, caches the result locally, and displays a bundled 88×31 image. See External services. No remote script or remote image is loaded on the page.

Multisite

Joshternet declarations belong to origins, not WordPress site records.

Subdomain and domain-mapped sites can have independent declarations when they have different origins. Path-based subsites that share the main site’s origin also share its single /.well-known/josh URI, so the plugin directs those administrators back to the main site.

A site published below the origin root may require hosting configuration to route /.well-known/josh into WordPress. The plugin warns about that case instead of pretending every hosting platform handles it the same way.

External services

The plugin’s primary function is publishing a Joshternet declaration at /.well-known/josh. Publishing that declaration does not contact Joshternet.org or any other external service.

The optional [joshternet_button] shortcode uses the Joshternet Button State service:

https://joshternet.org/api/button-state

When the shortcode is rendered and there is no usable cached result, this site’s WordPress server sends an HTTPS GET request to that URL. The request includes this site’s normalized website origin as the origin query parameter, for example https://example.com. The User-Agent identifies the plugin version and repeats that same origin. The service uses the origin to determine the site’s state in the public Joshternet registry and returns the appropriate button information. Ordinary connection metadata such as the WordPress server’s IP address can be visible to the service.

The plugin does not send WordPress usernames, email addresses, posts, comments, visitor identities, cookies, analytics identifiers, the current visitor’s page URL, or the contents of /.well-known/josh to the Button State service.

A successful result is cached locally in WordPress for up to 6 hours. A failed or invalid lookup is cached for 15 minutes so an outage does not contact the service on every page view. If the service is unavailable or its response cannot be validated, the shortcode displays nothing.

The button images are bundled with the plugin. The shortcode does not load a remote image or remote JavaScript.

Joshternet Terms of Service:
https://joshternet.org/terms/

Joshternet Privacy Policy:
https://joshternet.org/privacy/

License and authorship

Copyright 2026 Joshua Morris.

This plugin is licensed under GPLv2 or later. The full GPL version 2 text is in LICENSE.

The Joshternet specifications (RFC-JOSH-0001, RFC-JOSH-0002) are separate works authored by Joshua Morris for the Joshternet and licensed under CC BY 4.0. This plugin implements those specifications; it does not relicense them under the GPL, and the specification licenses do not relicense this plugin.

The 88×31 PNGs in assets/buttons/ are Joshternet button artwork authored by Joshua Morris for the Joshternet project. For distribution with this plugin they are licensed under GPLv2 or later, the same as the plugin code.