Connect information without losing its context.
Project Raise the Roof
AN ONGOING PROJECT
Explore how connected tools and AI can help people do harder work with greater control and understanding.
Make more possible.
PUT IT TO WORK
- Name the harder task and the information it needs.
- Follow the context across tools and inspect the handoff.
- Keep the result, usage, and limits visible.
START WITH THE IDEA
The idea in brief.
Make harder work possible without hiding how it happens. Connected tools and AI are valuable when they preserve the context, control, and visibility needed to understand a result and decide what to do next.
Work split across tools
- Re-enter the context
- Lose the thread
- Judge an opaque result
A connected workflow
- Carry context forward
- Inspect the action
- Review result + cost
THE DIRECTION
What we’re working toward.
Make advanced capability inspectable and adaptable.
Show the gains and the limits of the connected system.
HOW WE THINK ABOUT THE WORK
Principles with practical consequences.
Connections should carry meaning
Moving data is useful only if the next tool can understand it. Identity, relationships, and the reason something matters should survive a handoff.
Capability needs control
A more capable system needs understandable actions and an inspectable result. Start with a bounded workflow and keep account and integration requirements explicit.
Watch value and cost together
Doing more is not automatically doing better. Understand what the AI work contributed to and how its cost relates to the project’s priorities.
A SMALL WORKING PRACTICE
Put the principle to work.
Name the harder task and the information it needs.
Follow the context across tools and inspect the handoff.
Keep the result, usage, and limits visible.
FROM IDEAS TO TOOLS
Explore the related work.
Each example gives you a task, something to look for, and a next decision. Product pages describe the current demos, releases, and source availability.
HopperBot Studio →
Bring your assistant and your apps together.
A task to try
Explore an assistant working with your apps.
What to look for
The product page describes the local Studio and its existing account and integration requirements.
Next decision. Choose one bounded task and check which connections are actually configured before attempting it.
Opens your local Studio. AI and external actions require their existing account and integration configuration.
AI Effectiveness →
See the work behind your AI usage: tokens linked to the conversations, commits and projects they went into.
A task to try
Connect AI usage to the work it went into.
What to look for
Follow tokens back to conversations, commits, and projects to understand the activity.
Next decision. Choose an outcome you care about and ask what evidence connects the usage to that outcome.
Signed and notarized desktop release 0.7.8.
Project Cost Controls →
Budgets per project, trends against them and near or over alerts, with the usage and conversations behind each cost.
A task to try
Understand a project’s budget and usage.
What to look for
Look at trends and near or over alerts together with the usage behind each cost.
Next decision. Use one project budget to decide which work to continue, adjust, or investigate.
Signed and notarized desktop release 0.1.8.
Follow the code.
Published repositories identify their own license and release status. The Open Source and Pro Source pages explain the two paths.
READ IT IN ORDER
A path through the ideas.
The Dogfood Notebook →
From a problem you feel to a tool that earns its place.
Building with AI →
A thesis about specificity, followed by a standard for testing it.
The Floor and the Roof →
Useful starting points and a path to more demanding work.
PRINCIPLES & FIELD NOTES
Follow the work.
guide 2 min read
Pro Source: better together
The connected workspace, its source, and continuing improvements—run by you.
Project Raise the Rooffield note 1 min readOne person, connected across apps
What we observed when a contact changed while a calendar event was open.
Project Dogfood · Project Raise the Roofprinciple 3 min readBoutique software at scale
AI may change the economics of specificity. Empathy and feedback still decide whether the result is useful.
Project Dogfood · Project Raise the Rooffield note 3 min readConnections should preserve context
A note, a task, and a person should keep their meaning when the work moves between tools.
Project Dogfood · Project Raise the Roofprinciple 3 min readRaise the floor. Then raise the roof.
A useful free baseline and advanced capability are two parts of the same ambition.
Project Raise the Floor · Project Raise the Roofprinciple 3 min readChoose a contest you can measure
Project Top Gun starts with the discipline to define what winning means.
Project Top Gun · Project Raise the RoofAS THE WORK DEVELOPS
Project updates.
A clearer way to follow the project
The project now has the same compact detail layout and tabs as Research, with principles, practical build examples, reading paths, and connections collected in one place.
The project hub is open
The first reading paths and related tools are collected here. These are the project’s aims; individual product pages describe current availability.
ONE BODY OF WORK
Follow the connections.
Project Raise the Floor →
Useful standalone tools are the foundation; connected capability should add a clear benefit beyond them.
Project Top Gun →
Top Gun supplies the specific contest and comparison needed to judge an advanced approach.
Project Dogfood →
Recurring use exposes where preserving context would make a connected system more valuable.
See the larger picture.
The content graph follows project membership, shared posts, reading paths, topics, and referenced tools. Every connection has a stated reason.
For agents: the public index includes project principles, build examples, dated updates, and related posts.