This paper tells the story of several distributed architectures “from within” and from personal experience. Using a “cosmopolitical compass”, we shall describe four types of architectures — including P2P — that are currently being debated, and find four other types in P2P as such, from centralized P2P to encrypted P2P. We argue that this approach is helpful to unveil the plurality of choices needed for obtaining a network that works and the composition work required for this purpose (as opposed to any “purist” view of distribution). It is also helpful to understand the agency of these networks, which distribute competencies as much as they are distributed.