On Artcompiler

Artcompiler is a software studio that specializes in producing API-first B2B SaaS products.

Here are some paragraphs on Artcompiler.

Expertise Over Knowledge

Just as it takes an expert to know if a Google search or a ChatGPT response is true or not, we increasingly need experts to participate in the software development process. We need to engage experts deeply in software product creation.

APIs All The Way Down

Code is a collection of abstractions that interact with each other in various ways. One such abstraction is functions. In a monolithic system, one function calls another without leaving the process boundary. In distributed systems, such as web applications, functions can be exposed as internet APIs. Such APIs can be called by anyone who knows their address and has a valid API key.

The Democratization of Software Development

With the rise of no-code tools and now AI programming assistants, it is easier than ever to create generic software. These tools will make it possible for novice programmers to glue together disparate functions to solve their problems. This will increase demand for APIs that require technical and domain expertise to develop.

The Rise of the Task Specific API

As software eats the world, it stands to reason that the bites will become finer grained over time. Smaller and smaller niches will form into which software solutions must fit. This points to the inevitable rise of task specific APIs.

API as Language

These trends point to the need for a platform for expert developed, task specific APIs. Enter Graffiticode. Graffiticode is an open source framework for developing and deploying task specific APIs developed by domain experts.

Each API embeds a task specific language that defines how it responds to a request. This enables a division of labor between the technical software developers and domain expert developers. There is, in effect, a language in the middle that serves as a contract between them.

Artcompiler as Language Developer

The core technical task at Artcompiler is developing and deploying task specific languages. We do this in collaboration with domain experts who experience the pain being solved by those APIs. All other technology is infrastructure that gets reused across APIs and products.

Artcompiler as Software Studio

The core business task at Artcompiler is to build profitable software products around web APIs. This involves bringing together customers, domain experts, software developers, and funding.

Projects begin with an idea about a problem we want to see fixed in the world. That idea evolves into a series of minimum viable products. The MVPs lead to customers. The customer generates revenue. The revenue leads to profits.

Artcompiler as Partner

Our main contribution as studio operator is to provide technical and operational expertise. We seed projects with ideas that are compatible with our API-as-language model of the world. Beyond that we partner with domain experts and investors to move the projects forward.