Start a project
How we work

Every decision is made by a person you can name.

Most of the building is done by machines, under their direction. Everything on this page follows from that.

Start a project
A pyramid. A small top band of three people, labelled people, sits over a wide base of machine units, labelled machines. Decisions drop from the people into the machines, come back up finished, and each one is stamped by a person.

Five stages. Usually more than one lap.

An engagement runs from the first conversation to handover, and you sign at four of the five stops.

  1. 01

    Scope

    We start with your business, not your feature list.

  2. 02

    Set up

    Everything is created in your name in week one.

  3. 03

    Define

    You accept what each feature is for, and what done means, before it is built.

  4. 04

    Build and show

    Working software every week, on a frozen link.

  5. 05

    Release and run

    Your named approver and ours. Then we run it, or hand it over.

Two pages before any code.

Each feature starts as a one-page intent, then a short spec in your language, and you accept both.

Every decision along the way is written down within a day. “Why did we build this” takes a minute to answer.

intent.mdone page
Order status problem Customers call to ask whether their order is ready. The phone rings hardest during the lunch rush, when nobody can answer it. proposed outcome A customer can see where their order is and when it will be ready, without calling. ACCEPTEDyour name
spec.mdstories and criteria
1. I can open my confirmation link and see which stage my order is at. 2. I can see the expected ready time and where to collect it. ACCEPTEDyour name
together, these two files are the PRD

An agent proposes a plan. A person accepts it. Then the code gets written.

One engineer steers several agents at once, each on its own branch, and spends the day directing and reviewing.

  • The rules live in the code.

    What agents may touch, what they must run, what they cannot do. No session can switch them off.

  • Twice is a rule. Three times is a gate.

    A mistake made twice becomes a written rule. Made three times, it becomes an automatic check.

  • Agents do not merge, deploy, or change scope.

    People do.

Default stack

If you already have a tracker or a cloud, yours wins.

  • Linear the plan Every task, and the story it traces back to.
  • Claude Code the agents One branch each, working to the written spec.
  • Codex the agents Used alongside it, on the same rules.
  • GitHub the code Branches, two reviews, a merge a person signs.
  • AWS where it runs Your account, your name, billed to you.

Nothing merges without a name on it.

Every change runs its tests first, then gets two reviews: a machine against the spec and the rules, and a person for intent and risk.

Order status feature
Order 1184 · Court Street
Received In the kitchen Ready
Ready by 12:40 Collect at the pickup counter.
existsdemorealverified
One feature levelling up through four flags: exists, demo, real, verified. A SAMPLE DATA sticker marks the demo and peels off once the data is real; at verified a named person signs it.
Exists.
It is there.
Demo.
Sample data, and the screen says so.
Real.
Real data.
Verified.
A named person checked it against evidence.
pull request
machine person
named reviewer, always
  • money
  • sign-in
  • personal data
  • regulated

Nobody mistakes a mockup for a working calculation.

Working software, every week, on a link that does not move.

It is frozen the day before and walked against the criteria you approved, then written up in a one-page note.

Weekly note week 06
shipped
next
decisions needed from you Do delivery orders show the same stages, or stop at handed to the driver? Confirm who signs off the text message copy.
risks
against the statement of work
and the rest of the week
  • StandupsWhat is being worked on, what is landing next.
  • A shared channelWe are in it through the day, not just on demo day.
  • The demoYour decision maker walks the build with us.

The number comes before the work.

Every task traces back to a story you approved, and a change that moves time or cost gets a one-page change order, signed first.

Price is set per engagement. Nothing gets built that you cannot trace back to something you agreed to.

  1. statement of work
  2. intent
  3. spec
  4. task
  5. code
  6. decision log
change
change order · one page The number on it.
signed first

Everything is in your name from week one.

The code, the cloud, the domains, the tracker. We hold access and you hold ownership, so handover is removing our access.

Agents reach the tracker and the code, and nothing else. They hold no production credentials.

registered to [your company]
our access, at the end
  • access REVOKED
  • access REVOKED
  • access REVOKED
  • access REVOKED
  • access REVOKED
The keys do not move. Handover is a subtraction.

What we need from you

  • One person who can make decisions.
  • Access to the people who know how the business actually works.
  • Your decision maker at the demo, and a channel we can reach you in through the week.

That is the list. Nothing on our side sets the pace.

If you are wondering

The jobs stay the same and the tools change. One tracker, one source of truth, and yours wins.

A small team assembled for it, senior on the decisions: an engagement lead, an engineering lead, a design lead, and the agents they direct. Names on day one.

Every release carries a warranty window. Inside it, anything that does not behave as the spec says is fixed at no charge. After that we either run it or you do, and the statement of work says which.

They should. Agents reach the tracker and the code, hold no production credentials, and work under rules they cannot switch off. The full playbook has every control written out.

A demo with your decision maker each week, standups you are welcome in, and a channel we answer in through the day. Decisions are written down within a day.

The full playbook is a download. No email required.

That is the whole model.

The long version is a download. The short version is a conversation.

START A PROJECT Read the full playbook (PDF)