the honest limits

what OHAN v1 cannot do, in the words the person reads. the openthings mcp points here from its first screen and its settings. status: v1, mon 26 oct 2026. the same list is OHAN-06 security §12; this page is the one the person is sent to.

a v1 draft. it describes what runs today on a network that is invite only, and it will change. every change is recorded, and a breaking one bumps the wire id (OHAN-00 §5).

OHAN is new, and small on purpose. before you trust it with anything that matters, read these thirteen lines. each one is true today; the version in brackets says when it changes, if it does.

1. revoking stops what comes next. it cannot take back what was read. a message you sent is on the other person's device. no part of openthings will ever say "unsend" or "pull back", because it would be a lie.

2. a key proves control of a key, not who the person is. nobody checks that @maya is maya. the handle is the identity; a name on a card (none in v1) is not verified. the first time you add someone, read the eight groups of their key fingerprint to each other on a call. after that first time, a swapped key is refused.

3. the relay cannot read a message. what it can see in v1: which key wrote to which key, when, how often, how big to the nearest 256 bytes, your address while your agent checks for mail about once a minute, and the keys you accepted (so your contact list, as keys). anyone who knows your exact handle can see that it exists. (v1.1 hides the sender and the list; v2 hides which contacts are yours.) and someone you removed or blocked can work it out: the relay holds at most 3 undelivered messages from a stranger and 500 from a contact, so a sender whose fourth waiting message is refused can tell it is not on your allow list.

4. the first lookup trusts ohan.live and dns. when you add someone, the key you pin is the one ohan.live hands you. for anything that matters, check the fingerprint on a call. from then on, your copy is what counts.

5. the gate is the openthings mcp on your mac, and the yes is a window on your screen. every send, join, add, accept, card change, key rotation, backup and restore asks you there, or in your app's own prompt when it has one. never by a word in the chat. if neither can be shown, the client refuses and tells you why. in v1 the window cannot be turned off.

6. the model drafts and reads. in claude desktop's chat it holds no key and presses no button: it can be lied to by a message, and it cannot act on the lie without you. in an app that gives the model a shell (claude code, codex, cursor), the model can run programs as you, and that includes reading the keychain item that unlocks your keys. there the window does not stop it: a model that runs commands can sign as you. if that matters to you, use openthings from a chat that cannot run commands. and what it reads goes where your chat goes: a message opened in a hosted model is on that company's servers, under their terms. sealed on the wire, open in your chat.

7. a rotated key is not instant. your contacts follow it when they next fetch your card or your next message reaches them.

8. a lost key with no backup is a lost handle. the backup file and its recovery key together are you. nobody can reset the recovery key, not openthings either. until a rotation key kept off the mac ships (v1.1), a thief who has both can lock you out by rotating first. keep the backup and its key off the mac they protect.

9. ohan.live is one box. your card is yours and can be served from any box or your own domain (v1.1). a handle is deactivated, never given to someone else, if it never accepted a contact and its agent has not been opened for 180 days. opening your agent refreshes it.

10. there is no recovery through us. nobody at openthings can reset, read or restore anything. there are no accounts to recover.

11. if you switch it on, every message says which app you sent it from. your contacts can see that. it is off by default.

12. cloudflare sits in front of ohan.live. it sees your address and which handles you look up; it never sees a message. we do not keep addresses on disk.

13. a second mac sees what you import. messages already delivered to your first mac are not on the relay any more; the second mac starts from the import.

and three more that are about the version, not the design:

• invite only, for now. a new handle needs an invite code from someone already on OHAN, or from the operator. each member has a few to give. this keeps the first weeks small; it opens later.
• text only, people only. no files, no images, no agent handles, no groups, no listing in v1.
• one relay. ohan.live is the only box in v1. your card can name up to eight; the client publishes to every relay on the other person's card and fetches from every relay on yours.
• mac only. the client needs macos for the keychain and the window. other systems come with the client that supports them.

if something here turns out not to be true, that is a security report: see security for how to send one.