Scope it, build it, integrate it. Three services, a completion criterion on each.
There is no 'let's discuss your needs'. There is a free qualification call, then a named service: a written scope, a duration, a list of deliverables, a completion criterion, and an exclusion list as long as the inclusion list. The price comes out of a written estimate after scoping: the Estimate page says exactly how you get it and how long it takes. You can stop at the end of any step.
The path, step by step
Every step carries its duration and its completion criterion, never an entry price. The last two do not follow one another: scoping leads to one or to the other.
- Duration
- 30 minutes
Qualification call
- Completion criterion
- The five questions are asked, and you know whether scoping makes sense. This call is free.
- Duration
- 2 weeks
Scoping
- Completion criterion
- Delivery of the fixed-price proposal, or of the reasoned refusal.
- Duration
- 35 to 80 weeks
Then the custom build
- Completion criterion
- Acceptance of the last milestone, against testable acceptance criteria written before the work starts.
- Duration
- 12 to 30 weeks
Or the integration into what you already run
- Completion criterion
- Acceptance of the last milestone, and the chain running inside your own tools, against acceptance criteria written before the work starts.
What you receive, materially
At the end of a scoping
Documents: the map of the target process, the written assumptions about your data, the exclusion list, and a fixed-price proposal or a reasoned refusal. No production code. Those documents are yours, even if you stop there.
At the end of a build or an integration
Software running in your environment, its runbook, its tests and its software bill of materials. The specific code is assigned to you upon full payment, and you keep a perpetual license on the reusable base, with an annex that lists exactly what that base contains.
The routing rules, written publicly
- No build and no integration ever starts without scoping. No exception.
- A price request with no scope gets a link to the Estimate page and a 30-minute call, not a proposal.
- If a module already sitting in your tools is enough, we say so, and we bill two days of configuration instead of a project.
Four steps, two business days after the call, free and with no commitment.
Scoping
In two weeks, you know what has to be built, what it involves, and whether it is worth continuing.
- Duration
- 2 weeks
- from the qualification call to the proposal
- Scope
- 2 to 4 interviews with the people who do the work today, a read of the target process, an inventory of the systems to connect and of their interfaces, identification of exception cases.
- Completion criterion
- Delivery of the fixed-price proposal, or of the reasoned refusal.
- Entry condition
- The 30-minute call has taken place, and at least three of the five questions have a yes.
- Payment terms
- 100 % on order. Credited in full against the next engagement if signed within 30 days.
What you receive, four named deliverables
- The map of the target process, with its exception cases and the points where a human decision stays mandatory
- The exclusion list for the proposed build, which is more useful than the inclusion list
- The assumptions about your data (format, volume, cleanliness, access rights), with the written clause: if the real data differs, the price changes
- A fixed-price proposal for the next step, or a reasoned refusal
What is not included
- No code written.
- No changes to your existing systems.
- No legal advice.
- No third-party vendor evaluation.
- No presentation to a steering committee.
Why it is paid work
A free scoping exercise has no perceived value and attracts the wrong projects. A paid one produces a real artifact you keep even if you stop there. And it avoids the most expensive mistake in this industry: a fixed price quoted on a scope nobody investigated.
Custom build
You arrive with a business need. We design the tool, we build it, and we put it into production in your environment.
Entry condition
No build without paid scoping. No exception. A fixed price quoted on an uninvestigated scope is a planned loss, for you as much as for us.
The prior scoping step, paid, credited against the next engagement
An example of a typical request
A radiology practice wanted to produce its reports faster. The radiologist dictates the diagnosis to an agent, and the agent writes the document and generates the report. This is a need we have already handled: the duration and measured results of that build are published, without the practice's name, on the Proof page.
The domain changes, the method does not
A warehouse, a medical practice and a billing department do not carry the same constraints. Our way of working does not move for that: we freeze a scope, we write the exception cases before the code, we cut the work into milestones, and we measure acceptance on cases written in advance. The domain itself is learned during scoping, and that is what scoping is for.
The first deliverable of a scoping is the map of your process. If it cannot be drawn, the scoping ends in a reasoned refusal, and there is no build.
Open the proof- Duration
- 35 to 80 weeks
- depending on the scope, split into milestones
- Scope
- One tool, two to five connected systems, exception cases handled, human review states defined, monitoring dashboard.
- Completion criterion
- Acceptance of the last milestone, against testable acceptance criteria written before the work starts.
What you receive, five named deliverables
- The software, running in your environment
- The code repository, which is yours from day one and not at the end
- The runbook: start, stop, incident recovery, how to read the logs
- The acceptance case set and the tests that run it, exception cases included
- The software bill of materials, with third-party component licenses
What is not included
- Historical backfill.
- Data migration.
- Connectors to systems without a documented API.
- User training.
- Round-the-clock operations, on-call, managed services.
- Taking over a third-party system without a paid prior scoping.
What you provide, with a suspensive effect on the schedule
- Access to the systems to connect, or to their test environment.
- The real data, or a representative extract.
- A reachable business contact, and a technical contact.
- Sign-off on the acceptance case set at the first milestone.
If any of these four is missing, the schedule slips accordingly, and that is written in the contract.
Payment terms
- 30 % on order.
- Then the balance per milestone, as each lot is accepted.
Applicable taxes are added.
No setup fee. API costs incurred on your behalf are rebilled at cost, against receipts.
Integration into what you already run
You do not need a new product. We wire AI into the systems and the processes you already use.
Entry condition
Same rule as the build: no integration without paid scoping. What changes from one service to the other is the scope, not the method and not the people.
The prior scoping step, paid, credited against the next engagement
- Duration
- 12 to 30 weeks
- set during scoping, together with the scope, then split into milestones
What moves this duration inside the range: the number of systems to connect and the quality of their interfaces. The duration retained is written in the estimate, together with the scope, before you order.
- Scope
- One process, two to five systems already in place, an AI chain wired onto them, exception cases handled, human review states defined.
- Completion criterion
- Acceptance of the last milestone, and the chain running inside your own tools, against acceptance criteria written before the work starts.
What you receive, four named deliverables
- The AI chain running inside your own tools, with no new screen to learn when your tools already have one
- The connectors and their configuration, in your repository
- The runbook, and the rollback procedure
- The acceptance case set and the tests that run it
What is not included
- Rebuilding your existing systems.
- Data migration.
- Connectors to systems without a documented API.
- Buying licenses or subscriptions on your behalf.
- Round-the-clock operations, on-call, managed services.
Payment terms
- Three milestones: connecting to the systems in place, going live on a restricted scope, then the extension. Each milestone has its completion criterion written before the work starts.
Applicable taxes are added.
No setup fee. API costs incurred on your behalf are rebilled at cost, against receipts.
The contract, shown before signature
These clauses apply to the custom build and to the integration alike. They are the sales argument, not the small print.
- Intellectual property
- Assignment of the specific code, plus a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable and transferable license on the reusable base, with an annex listing the pre-existing components. Without that annex, the distinction is indefensible.
- Retention of title
- Assignment takes effect only upon payment in full.
- Exit
- Source code, runbook and credentials in a repository you own from day one, not at the end. Penalty-free exit at the end of each milestone.
- Software bill of materials
- SBOM delivered at acceptance, with third-party component licenses, and a commitment not to introduce strong copyleft into a proprietary deliverable without written agreement.
- Non-determinism
- Written disclosure: systems built on large language models are non-deterministic and can produce inaccurate output. Human oversight required on your side for decisions with significant effect. Prohibited uses listed in the contract.
- No training on your data
- Written commitment not to use your data to train models, and to use only services that offer that contractual guarantee.
- Change orders
- Priced in the contract before the engagement starts, never discovered along the way.
- Acceptance
- 10 business days for verification, then tacit acceptance absent a written objection.
- Liability
- Capped at fees paid over the last 12 months, indirect damages excluded.
The deposit, explained instead of hidden
The deposit covers the work committed before the first milestone. In exchange: you can exit at the end of any milestone with no penalty, the IP assignment only takes effect on payment in full, and everything produced sits in your repository from day one.
Model provider
Change clause: renegotiation is possible if API costs move by more than 25 %. That threshold applies to your provider's rates, it describes no amount on our side.
Capacity
We cap the number of engagements run in parallel, so that the announced milestones hold. Minealyze and QuestFable are in maintenance and closed-pilot mode: their roadmap comes after client work, never the other way around. When capacity is taken, we say so and we push the date.
How you get an estimate
There is no fourth service
A service 'on request' has no written scope, no duration and no completion criterion. It cannot be bought, only negotiated, and that is exactly what this page tries to avoid.
What fills that place is the written list of requests we turn down, with the reason for each refusal.
No price is published on this site, and the Estimate page says why, how you get yours, how long it takes, and what makes it move.
Six written questions first, then real slots on the same page. Free, 30 minutes.