What is Linotype?

Linotype is an operating model for building complex products while preserving coherence over time.

The problem

As products grow, teams face:

• Context loss when returning to old work
• Drift between docs and reality
• Unclear boundaries for delegation
• Difficulty tracking decisions over time

The solution

Linotype provides:

• Galleys: temporary groupings of slugs that realise one product change; move through planning → (queue) → doing → review → done
• Slugs: smallest delegable units of work inside a galley, with clear boundaries
• Explicit stages: galley lifecycle plus optional queue for parallel handoff
• Proof requirement: build slugs show working evidence before review
• Agent contract: docs/ai/_agent-rules.md (authoritative) plus repo AGENTS.md (adapter). Focus (loose/standard/strict) and optimise (speed/cost/quality) tune scope and trade-offs
• Role clarity: Orchestrator (coordination, moves) and Executor (slug delivery); PDA/Module Architect for human ownership

Core principles

1. Coherence over time — The system stays understandable as it evolves
2. Delegable work — Slugs have clear boundaries; galleys coordinate them
3. Reality-driven docs — Documentation reflects what actually exists
4. Proof-backed completion — No galley moves to review without slug evidence

When to use Linotype

Use Linotype when:

• Your product will evolve over months/years
• Multiple people (or agents) need to understand and execute work
• You need to delegate or parallelise work safely
• Context loss is expensive

Skip Linotype for throwaway prototypes, solo projects with no handoff, or work that doesn’t need coherence tracking.