Start a projectStart
How it works

One rulebook in the middle. Everything else is built from it.

You describe your business once, as tables, fields and calculations. Seeds add what you need around it, tools generate the code, and hosting puts it online. Change a rule and everything rebuilds.

How a project works

Every project is free. Add what you need.

This is a project, drawn exactly as you will see it in the app. Open the rows.

◆
Core rulebook core
effortless-rulebook/effortless-rulebook.json · 5 tables · version 14 · Imported from Airtable
Seeds
AT
Files in airtable-import/ · added 2 days ago
Tracked · 5 imports per base every 30 days
BE
package
Includes Postgres database, Node + Postgres API · added 2 days ago
Free
Md
Files in docs/ · added yesterday
Free
Tools added on their own
⚙
rulebook-to-xlsx
reads ../effortless-rulebook/effortless-rulebook.json · writes exports/
Tracked · 100 runs per month
Hosting
▲
Shared
Tiny, shared machine · scales to zero after 5 idle minutes; starts again on demand
$0
  • ◆
    The core rulebook

    Every project has one. It holds your model, and every tool reads it. Each tool's path to it is worked out for you.

  • BE
    Seeds

    Packages you add: an import, a database, an app. Some seeds are free, others charge. A seed can include other seeds and the tools they bring.

  • ⚙
    Tools

    Each one turns the rulebook into something: SQL, an API, a workbook, docs.

  • ▲
    Hosting

    Press Run app and the project is built and put online as a live preview. Run it again whenever you need it.

  • Licenses

    Any seed or tool may carry one: declared, tracked or enforced. A license governs future runs only. What you have generated is yours.

The idea behind all of it

Version the rules.

Not the “source code”.

A business rule, like how a late fee is charged, usually gets written down four times: in the database, in the code, in a spreadsheet and in the docs. Version control then tracks four piles of text, and when the rule changes someone has to find every copy. Sooner or later one is missed.

Here the rule is written once, and the rule is what gets the version. The code, the spreadsheet and the docs are rebuilt from it every time, so there is nothing else to keep in step.

1Try itlive, in this page
Rulebook Leases › LateFee
=IF({{DaysLate}} > {{GraceDays}}, {{MonthlyRent}} * {{LateFeePercent}}, 0)
Policy · LateFeePolicies › standardEach lease looks these up
Witnesses · the data the rule is computed over
LeaseRentDays lateGrace ↗Fee % ↗Late fee
Unit 2B$1,850.00458%$0.00
Unit 4A$2,400.00958%$192.00
Unit 7C$1,200.001358%$96.00
Generated from the rulebook · real tool output
EnglishDetermined by priority: the monthly rent times the late fee percent if the days late is greater than the grace days; in all other cases, 0.
ExcelIF(((D2 > F2)=TRUE), C2 * G2, 0)
Export
How this works →

Move the grace-period slider and watch version one become version two.

2Watch the Vibe Cut9 min film

A slider, a deliberate mistake typed straight into the rulebook, a fix made in Excel, and back to version one. Every copy follows along by itself. Watch on YouTube

3Watch the Enterprise Cut7 min film

The same card at its Enterprise level: a version named by a fingerprint of the rules, every fee with its derivation, the rule built four ways, and eight file formats in and out. Watch on YouTube

Change a rule New version

Move the grace-period slider. A rule's numbers are part of the rules, so version one becomes version two and every line is rebuilt.

Change the data Same version

Add a day to a lease. One fee is recomputed, but no rule changed, so the version does not change either.

Same rules, any file Same name

Edit the rules in Excel or YAML and drop the file back. If the rules match, so does the version. Put everything back and it reads v1 again.

Why this works

We turn what you already know into working software — at any scale.

Drop a rulebook, get a working repository back — that is the whole of it, and the film is fifteen minutes of it actually happening. Cost is decoupled from size by construction, not by discount.

The full walkthrough · Drop Your Rulebook Here · 15 min

01One source of truth, every layer follows.

The rulebook is the only thing anyone writes or edits. Change a rule, and the database, API, app, docs and tests all follow. They cannot drift, because they were never independently written in the first place.

02Manufacturing, not labor.

A 500-table system and a 50-table one cost roughly the same to build. Generation is not billed by the hour against scope — it is closer to a print run than a construction project. This is the part a shop that hand-writes code cannot match.

03Free at the bottom, same engine at the top.

A solo builder gets the identical core mechanism for $0, today. That is not a loss leader — it is the proof. You can watch the exact machine that builds an enterprise system build your own project first.