Workflow first. Model second. Engineering throughout.
An honest description of how we work — what we start with, what we refuse to skip, and the small set of principles that decide everything downstream.
The model question is the last one we answer.
A common failure mode in AI projects is to start from the model. Which frontier model is best? Should we fine-tune? Open-weight or closed? These are real questions, and they are the wrong questions to start with.
We start with the workflow. What is the decision the agent is replacing or augmenting? What does the input look like? What is the cost of being wrong? Where does the agent stop and the human start? What does “good” look like, in numbers? Only after these questions have answers does the model selection conversation begin.
Six things we don’t skip.
Workflow before model
The decision, the data, the cost of being wrong, the handover surface — all settled before a model is named.
Custom eval, always
Public benchmarks measure generic tasks. Production agents need a stratified, domain-specific eval harness from day one.
Deterministic fallback
Every agent has a non-AI escape hatch — wired in by default, not as a switch the team forgets to turn on.
Trace by design
Every input, retrieval, model call, tool call, and human override is logged as the system runs — not reconstructed from logs after the fact.
Task names, not model names
Application code depends on what it's trying to do, not which provider is doing it. Provider churn never reaches the agents.
Operations is part of the project
Agents drift, regress, and fail in new ways. Continuous evaluation, re-tuning, and incident response are part of the engagement, not phase two.
Discover. Build. Operate. End-to-end.
Stage 01 — Discover. We start by mapping the workflow, the decision points, and the data. We propose a shape, an eval, and a clear answer to “what does good look like, in numbers” before any code is written.
Stage 02 — Build. Architecture, retrieval, policy, tool integrations, eval harness, and deployment into the customer’s environment. The team you meet in Discover is the team that ships.
Stage 03 — Operate. Agents drift. The world changes. We stay engaged: continuous evaluation, regression catching, incident response, and improvement. Operations is a line item, not a hand-off.