The Commonwealth Provisional Government, or CPG, was an attempt by multiple towns to form a government within the Commonwealth. Accounts of what exactly happened to it vary. According to Nick Valentine, when representatives of the towns met to discuss it, an Institute synth appeared and killed all of them, immediately ending all further attempts at the prospect. In any case, the death of the CPG marked both the end of the Institute's attempt at meaningful cooperation with the surface and the beginning of the Commonwealth's paranoia concerning synths.