▲ /method
how loworbit makes things
every prototype on this site went through the same loop. the agent runs fast — the interesting part is what gets kept, cut, and scrapped between deploy and the next prd. that's where the judgment lives, and that's the part the blueprint below is trying to make legible.
┌─ project: loworbit ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── rev current ─┐
│ drawing: the loworbit pipeline │
│ scale: every prototype on this site went through this loop │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌─ A ──────┐ ┌─ B ──────┐ ┌─ C ──────┐ ┌─ D ──────┐ ┌─ E ──────┐
│ spawn │ │ build │ │ check │ │ deploy │ │ judge │
prd ─┐ │ [1] │ │ [2] │ │ [3] │ │ [4] │ │ [5] │
├→│ │ ─→ │ │ ─→ │ │ ─→ │ │ ─→ │ │ ─→ [6]
tmpl ─┘ │ hub │ │ claude │ │ ci │ │ vercel │ │ │
└──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └────┬─────┘
│
[op]
↓
evaluate +
decide
─ legend ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
prd one-page prd written by dks
tmpl loworbit-template + CLAUDE.md design rules
[op] operator gate — review, edit, advance, scrap
[1] spawn hub provisions github repo, vercel project, clerk satellite, dns, env vars; opens issue with PRD
[2] build agent reads PRD + CLAUDE.md, writes the prototype, commits, opens PR
[3] check typecheck + build + shared-chrome-diff; warnings surface in /admin
[4] deploy auto-merge if clean; vercel deploys merged commit
[5] judge operator visits live tool. iterate (loop back to build), scrap (retire), or ship as-is (mark live)
[6] live prototype ships at slug.loworbit.ai with /tools/[slug] writeup; everything in the open
─ notes ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
. every prototype on loworbit went through this loop. so did the hub itself.
. the agent runs fast. the interesting part is what gets kept, cut, and scrapped between
deploy and the next prd — that's where the judgment lives.
. iterations loop back to build with a new note appended to the prd.— what each phase actually does —
spawn — a one-page prd plus a template. no human edits to the prd after it's written; if the agent misreads it, that's a prd-clarity problem, not an implementation one. we fix the prompt, not the code.
build — the agent goes from empty repo to deploy. typecheck and basic tests gate the merge. if it can't pass them, it doesn't ship; if the gate is too tight, the gate is the bug.
check — a second pass reads the diff and the live deploy with a different posture than the builder. catches the obvious failure modes: dropped requirements, schema drift, copy that sounds like marketing.
deploy — the thing exists publicly. visitors can poke at it, leave a note via the footer, and the system records what they did (telemetry, not surveillance — see /privacy).
judge — the only phase that's entirely human. read the deploy, the usage, the feedback. write a verdict: kept, iterating, cut, or scrapped. the scrapyard is where the "scrapped" verdicts go to live in public. this is the loop's sharpest decision and the place an automated system has the most to learn.
— the rule that earned the blueprint —
blueprints used to be written by hand. that broke twice: once when a phase changed and the diagram drifted, once when the renderer's box-drawing characters lost their connection at small sizes. the engine fixes both — it's a pure function from a structured doc to monospace ascii. edits to the doc force the diagram to redraw; cascadia code keeps the lines flush.