The whole stack, layer by layer.
How the platform runs — from one shared model to a market of integrators, in seven steps. The diagram grows with the story.
It starts with a shared data model.
The Linked Commons Model (LCM) is one canonical schema for everything that happens in a hotel — reservations, guests, rates, folios, payments, housekeeping. Every other part of the platform speaks LCM. Nothing else defines its own format.
Connectors translate every system in — and out.
Native connectors sit between real hotel systems and the model. Each one translates its system's data into LCM on the way in — and back out on the way out. Systems keep working exactly as they are: the translation is the connector's job, not the vendor's. A connector runs as a proxy (passes traffic untouched) or a translator — one universal engine plus per-integration configuration, either way. The layer translates and routes; it is never a system of record. Built to scale to 1000+ native connectors — 3 running, 1 in progress today.
Every change becomes an event on one feed.
Below the model sits the event feed — an ordered stream of LCM events. A booking, a payment, a room-status change: each is one event, in one format. The feed is how changes propagate: connectors and services subscribe instead of polling — one source of truth for what just happened.
On top of the model: the portal, and extensions.
The portal is where the whole layer is seen and operated — connectors, data, health. Extensions are focused mini apps, each doing one job well. Both connect directly to the LCM — reading and writing the same shared model as everything else. No private shortcuts into the core.
The core is to be opened at the gate. The products are built on it.
Serai core — the LCM, the native connectors, and the event feed — is to be released under Apache-2.0 at the published gate: adoptable, inspectable, extendable, with no vendor able to lock the industry into the core. The portal and extensions are products built on that core. The portal is commercial; each mini app's license is its developer's choice — some will be open source. You pay for service and apps — never for events or the standard.
One commons, many system integrators.
The open core is to be a commons — governed by one foundation, vendor-neutral, not for sale. Around it, a market: many system integrators deploy the core, service it, and build products on top. Integrators compete on service and quality — never on lock-in; the core they deploy is the same for everyone.
Niji Labs develops the whole stack — the LCM, the native connectors, the event feed, the portal, and the first extensions — and deploys and services the pilot properties.
The core moves to the Serai Foundation: the LCM, the connectors, and the feed released under Apache-2.0 at the published gate. The Foundation stewards the standard; no single company controls the core.
Niji Labs continues as one of many integrators — deploying, servicing, and supporting commercially, building products on the open core. Other integrators can do the same; the hotel chooses who.
Serai is not Niji Labs' product; Niji Labs is Serai's first certified implementer.
The path to the Foundation ↗