A software studio
We build instruments for human flourishing.
Software for people doing human things — thinking, creating, healing, playing. And the developer tools behind it. No surveillance. No exploitation. Made deliberately, one thing at a time.
- No surveillance
- No exploitation
- No dark patterns
For people
Software for people doing human things — thinking, creating, healing, playing.
Boxwood
Mindful chess training, crafted with care. Pattern recognition without the clock, the ratings, or the anxiety.
Stet
A writing desk that comes with an editor. Chapters, corkboard, style sheet and research — and three editors who answer in the margin, and never change a word of yours.
Sheaf
A calm notes app. Capture a thought in a second and find it again later; nothing is filed without your say-so.
Wayside
Mass, confession and adoration times, each with a note of where it came from and when, and a road-trip mode that finds a Mass you can make along the way. Free, with no accounts.
Salver
Gmail intelligence that routes your email into Sheaf. It sorts what needs you from what does not and feeds it to your notes. It is never an email client.
Eddy
Paced breathwork and a meditation timer. Each protocol is labeled against the evidence, with a note that says what the studies found — including where they found nothing.
Story Engine
A local practice system for story development — spines, etudes, deep reps, spaced review. It never generates or suggests your story; every word stays yours.
Steady
Exposure therapy, organized. A shared workspace for patients and therapists doing ERP — so the work stays on treatment, not logistics.
Tend
Calm health awareness. Notice your sleep, food, movement, and meds — without metrics, guilt, or nagging.
Eaves
Personal finance without the shame. See where you stand, quietly — no debt-shaming, no streaks, no red.
Goldenrod
Voice-first screenwriting. Speak the scene, get back a properly formatted screenplay — Fountain native, with FDX export.
Bristol
AI storyboarding in a deliberately schematic animatic-blueprint style, built to receive scenes from Goldenrod.
Drift
Permission to be inefficient. One scenic route at a time, on a single Fast-to-Calm slider.
Neume Composer
On hold while it gets more work. A chord-progression tool for musicians who want to understand harmony, not just use it.
For builders
The same restraint, pointed at the tools we build with — infrastructure and AI-agent tooling made for Tortoise, opened up.
Troth
Spec-driven task management for AI coding agents. Write the spec, decompose it into verifiable tasks, let the agent run.
Wax
Returning soon: a managed harness for voice agents. Provider-agnostic orchestration with dual-vendor failover and voice-identical clones.
Experiments
Things we run in public to find out whether they are true. Measurements, not products.
What we refuse
The tortoise wins not by speed but by persistence and direction. What we won't do is part of the work, not a footnote.
Deliberate by design
Fewer things, better. Depth over breadth, craft over scale, longevity over hype. Every feature earns its place.
Attention, protected
Software should protect your attention, not auction it. Amplify your ability, not replace it. Work for you, not the other way around.
Respect, by default
Every decision considers the person on the other side of the screen. Useful software, made with care.