Open Arsenal

Open Source Infrastructure for Aquatic Food Production

Aquatic Forge is an open source specification for designing, building, and managing aquatic food production systems at the homestead, household, community, and small commercial scale. Its purpose is to make fresh seafood production more accessible by providing a framework that can adapt to different locations, climates, available resources, budgets, spaces, and production goals. Systems may operate indoors or outdoors and can support fish, crustaceans, and other suitable aquatic food species where legally and environmentally appropriate.

Aquatic Forge uses AI to transform local conditions and production goals into a site-specific aquaculture plan. The system can evaluate weather and seasonal temperatures, water availability and quality, available space, power requirements, species suitability, tank construction, filtration, aeration, heating and cooling, stocking levels, feeding, growth, breeding, and harvest requirements. Rather than providing a single generic system, Aquatic Forge is designed to determine how an aquatic food system should be configured for the environment in which it will actually operate.

The specification treats aquaculture as a living production system that requires continuous observation and adaptation. Growth and harvest forecasting, cohort management, animal behavior monitoring, health and welfare assessment, predator protection, water recycling, waste management, aquaponics integration, and system redundancy allow the AI to monitor changing conditions and identify emerging risks. A weather alert and response system can warn owners about impending heat, cold, storms, flooding, high winds, freezes, and other conditions that may require preparation or intervention. Failure and redundancy planning helps protect aquatic life when pumps, aeration, filtration, heating, cooling, power, or other critical components fail.

Aquatic Forge is intended to support both food independence and productive local economies. It can help owners work backward from a desired seafood supply to determine stocking requirements, system capacity, feed requirements, harvest schedules, infrastructure, operating costs, and expected production. The specification can also evaluate opportunities for aquaponics, water conservation, renewable energy, waste recovery, and lawful commercial production. By combining biological management, environmental awareness, infrastructure planning, forecasting, resilience, and AI-assisted decision support, Aquatic Forge provides an adaptable foundation for producing seafood locally in a wide range of environments.

This specification is released under the AGPL-3.0+ and is free to use with required Section 7 attribution. Attribution-free deployment is available through a Specification Branding License, with fees based on use and deployment scope.