# Vendor facets — Circle (circle.so), the community platform, NOT the USDC company in all/circle.
# One check, support_channel (2 pts), half of it when declared as Community. Circle has no
# roadmap, changelog or blog feature on the pages fetched, and its embedded comments are not a blog.
vendor: circle-community
name: Circle
website: https://circle.so
areas:
- community
registry_keys: []
rubric_schema_version: 0.22.0
generated: '2026-09-25'
features_refreshed: '2026-09-25'
basis: capability
summary: >-
  A Circle community earns a provider one check, support_channel (2 points): half when declared as Community,
  which the pointer probe does not read, and full when declared as Support and the page is publicly reachable.
  Circle is built for member communities with access rules and paywalls, so a community behind a login
  cannot show that it is live even when it is probed. The pages we fetched show no roadmap, changelog
  or blog feature, and embedding Circle comments in a provider's blog earns nothing. There is no registry
  key, so Circle customers cannot be detected or measured.
features:
- id: community-spaces
  name: Post, chat, event and course spaces
  description: A branded community built from mixed spaces, with public and private pages and member access
    rules.
  source: https://circle.so/customization
  tier: all
- id: custom-domain
  name: Custom domain
  description: >-
    Puts the community on the provider's own subdomain or root domain; available on the Professional,
    Business and Circle Plus plans.
  source: https://help.circle.so/p/administration/custom-domains
  tier: paid
- id: embedded-comments
  name: Embedded post comments
  description: Embeds the comment section of Circle posts into external websites and blog posts.
  source: https://circle.so/customization
  tier: all
maps:
- feature: community-spaces
  check: support_channel
  layer: composite
  credit: 0.5
  provider_must: >-
    Make at least the landing space publicly readable and declare its URL in apis.yml common[]. As Community
    it grades "unverified" (0.5) because probe-pointers.py does not probe Community; as Support it is
    probed and earns 1.0 when live, while a login-walled page grades "gated", which is still 0.5.
  note: >-
    195 providers whose only support-class pointer is Community all score support_channel partial ("pointer
    liveness 0.5"), measured 2026-09-25. No circle.so support pointer appears in the 2026-09-22 probe,
    so how Circle hosts answer a probe has not been measured.
  catalog_pass_rate: 0.45
  facet: developer_ergonomics
  points: 2
  baseline_pass_rate: 0.69
earns_nothing:
- feature: embedded-comments
  check: blog_present
  why: It adds Circle comments under a blog the provider already runs; it does not host a blog.
out_of_reach:
  checks:
  - roadmap_present
  - change_log_present
  - documentation_present
  - contract_present
  note: >-
    The fetched Circle pages list no roadmap, changelog or docs feature, and a community cannot produce
    the provider's contract.
surface:
  developer_ergonomics:
    reachable: 1.0
    total: 42
  agent_readiness:
    reachable: 0
    total: 139
hard_rule: >-
  A model, not a score. Adopting this vendor changes a provider's Kin Score only when the provider publishes
  the resulting artifacts on its own surface; nothing here writes a score, and no sponsorship or partnership
  can.
method: searched
source:
- https://circle.so/customization
- https://help.circle.so/p/administration/custom-domains
measured:
  cohort:
    method: vendors-catalog.json detections (CNAME / header / URL shape / markup), never a name match
    detected: 0
    in_baseline: 0
  control:
    basis: providers earning contract_present + documentation_present + api_reference_present, minus the
      cohort
    n: 5216
  metric: >-
    cohort_pct / control_pct = mean share of the check's points earned (derived and platform credit weighted),
    x100
  measured_on: '2026-09-25'
  status: 'not measurable: 0 detected customers clear the baseline (need 20)'
simulation:
  simulated_on: '2026-09-25'
  rubric: 0.23.0
  population: providers publishing a contract (contract_present earned), replayable exactly
  providers: 8977
  providers_unreplayable: 987
  providers_moved: 3701
  conditional_rows: excluded (they depend on what the API already does)
  composite_lift:
    median: 0.0
    p75: 0.5
    p90: 0.5
    max: 0.5
    mean_among_movers: 0.5
  agent_readiness_lift:
    median: 0.0
    p75: 0.0
    p90: 0.0
    max: 0.0
    mean_among_movers: 0.0
  facet_lift_median_among_movers:
    developer_ergonomics: 2.4
  composite_band_moves:
    thin -> developing: 101
    emerging -> thin: 30
    developing -> strong: 21
    strong -> exemplar: 6
  agent_readiness_band_moves: {}
  method: >-
    each provider's own kin/checks file, the vendor's maps at their stated credit, the scorer's composite
    formula; from -> to, nothing written