AI can generate code. It cannot generate the specification the code should execute from. A prompt is a request. A specification is a constraint. Without a specification, the AI builds what it predicts the prompt means — and the build is only as governed as the words in the prompt.
The paradigm shift is not in the tooling. It is in what has to be authored before the tooling is used.
Catenator
Any AI can convert a design document into a Catenator specification. Any agent, tool, or team can read and execute from it.
Catenator is the vocabulary and schema that makes this possible. Three layers — governing frame, pattern, rules per element — expressed in YAML. The specification is the invariant between governing intent and the build. The prompt is generated from it. The output is the consequence.
We write the governing design document. We set up the conversion pipeline and validate that the specification faithfully represents the governing intent.
What we do
We take on specification work. We begin before the build — before the first prompt is written, before the first agent is deployed, before the first PR is reviewed — with the question that determines what the build can do: what is the governing principle, and how is it expressed in a form the build can execute from.
We write the governing design document. We set up the conversion pipeline — using Catenator as the target vocabulary and schema — and validate that the specification faithfully represents the governing intent. The specification is the invariant. The prompt is generated from it. The build is the consequence.
What we are not
We don't build software. We don't write code for your system, manage your build pipeline, or produce deliverables your engineering team would produce. We specify the layer above the build.
If you need a development partner, we are not the right fit. If you need the specification your development partner should be executing from, we may be.
How to engage
The first step is a conversation. Book a slot using the calendar link below. The conversation covers your build pipeline, where the specification layer is absent or implicit, and whether we are the right fit for the work.
We also come to your team. The lunch and learn session makes the argument in person — the specification-before-build case, how the I2I pipeline works, what Catenator governs, and what adopting a machine-readable design document means for teams building AI-assisted systems. Typically 45 minutes plus Q&A. In-person or remote.
All enquiries use the form below. Include a link to your organisation or product and a short description of what you need.
Get in touch →Perspectives
Four decisions that made the governing layer invisible
The decision that precedes every other
How an engineering choice became a design assumption
Slop predates AI by thirty years
Your content reaches everyone the same way
A thirty-year-old method the design field never named
Any AI can convert a design document into a Catenator specification
Structured content and the governance argument