How we work

Sheet
A-500
Set
Practice
Status
Issued

Multiple models. Independent review. Human ownership.

Defined AI roles, isolated tasks, provider‑enforced spending caps and independently reviewed changes: a structured engineering process behind every build, from a two-day assessment to a product that runs for years.

A-500PracticeIssued

Seven-step engagement sequence Discover, architect, build, attack and review, verify, ship, observe. A human decides at architect, verify and ship. AI does bounded work during build and review. Step 01 Discover Step 02 Architect Step 03 Build Step 04 Attack / review Step 05 Verify Step 06 Ship Step 07 Observe Human decides AI does bounded work, human-directed Engineer-led, tool-assisted Seven-step engagement sequence Discover, architect, build, attack and review, verify, ship, observe. A human decides at architect, verify and ship. AI does bounded work during build and review. Step 01 Discover Step 02 Architect Step 03 Build Step 04 Attack / review Step 05 Verify Step 06 Ship Step 07 Observe Human decides AI does bounded work Engineer-led, tool-assisted
Fig. 2Where humans decide, and where AI works
  1. 01

    Discover

    Engineer

    We read the system before touching it: the code, the data model, what is actually deployed, and what the business depends on. On an AI‑built app this includes a pass for the patterns those apps repeat, like exposed secrets, missing row‑level security, and sessions that are never checked.

  2. 02

    Architect

    Human decides

    We decide what to keep, what to change and what to replace, and we write down why. A rewrite is a decision, not a default. When a fix is small and the foundation is sound, we say so.

  3. 03

    Build

    AI, human-directed

    Engineers direct the work and AI speeds up bounded pieces of it. Our internal system runs scoped tasks across several models, each in an isolated environment with a hard spending limit. It never touches your production data.

  4. 04

    Attack / review

    Second seat

    A second, independent seat reviews every change before it counts as done. The model that wrote the change never grades its own work. Reviewers are told the domain and the stakes, because a finding that matters for a $50,000 invoice can be noise on a $50 one.

  5. 05

    Verify

    Human decides

    We reproduce a finding before acting on it: write the failing test, confirm that it fails, then fix it. If the test passes, the finding was wrong, and the test stays as evidence either way.

  6. 06

    Ship

    Human decides

    You get the diff, the tests, and a plain account of what changed and why, not just a green checkmark. Deploys go through the same environments and controls we use on our own systems.

  7. 07

    Observe

    Engineer

    When an engagement continues past delivery, we watch what we shipped: errors, performance, and whether the fix held. A control nobody checks isn't a control.

Step 04 · Attack / review ↑

Every change gets challenged before it counts.

Where AI does the work

Bounded, well-scoped implementation: a function, a test suite, a migration, a documented fix. Each task runs in its own isolated environment under a hard spending limit, and never touches production systems or credentials.

Where a human decides

Architecture and scope. What we keep, change or block. Whether a review finding is real. What ships. Nothing ships on AI review alone.

Engagement models

Fixed scope for defined work. A bounded look first when it isn't defined yet.

Defined work
Fixed price and fixed scope. You know what you'll pay before you pay it.
Unknown size
A short, priced discovery or assessment comes first. We never bill hourly on a problem nobody has sized.
Access
You get access to the repository and CI from day one, and the work lives in your systems, not ours.
Handover
Documentation, decision records and a walkthrough are deliverables, so the knowledge doesn't leave with us.

See this applied to your system.

Start with a project brief, or read how the prototype-to-production assessment works.

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