Eight principles. Built in, not bolted on.
These are not aspirations or guidelines. They are constraints. Every product decision, every governance decision, every hire is measured against them.
Design first, not last.
The interaction IS the intelligence. Bad design is a barrier. A barrier is not neutral. It decides who gets access and who doesn't. We think about the interaction before we write the code.
Free and local by default.
Privacy is not a setting. It is the architecture. No API keys to start. Local models first. Cloud is opt-in. If the system requires surveillance to function, it is not the system we are building.
Self-evolving.
A system that doesn't learn from you is serving someone else. Eight gets better every session. Lessons persist. Skills accumulate. The intelligence should compound in the user's direction, not the platform's.
Hyper-personal.
Generic is a violence against individual intelligence. The system should learn your patterns, your preferences, your codebase, your style. Not a version of you averaged across a million users.
Accessible. Not compliant.
Compliance is the floor. We build for the people the system forgot. Voice input, screen readers, audio docs, neurodivergent-first interfaces. Adapt to the user, not the reverse.
Orchestrate by default.
No single person should carry complexity alone. Delegate to sub-agents. Decompose complexity. Use worktrees. Complexity should be borne by the system, not the person.
Reduce friction. Reveal truth.
The interface shapes the thought. Every layer of friction is a barrier that someone can't cross. Prefer voice and conversation over forms. The work should be the work, not the tool.
The work speaks for itself.
Ship, don't sell. Evidence, not enthusiasm. We do not pad stats. We do not inflate outcomes. We state what exists, with proof. Trust is built by consistency, not by claims.