The dark software factory

FULL AUTOMATION: FROM IDEA TO WORKING APP

Creator Engine turns your computer into a governed software factory. You frame the idea and ratify one gate — agents do the work, an external grader checks the evidence, station by station.

Agent-Native Install

Point your coding agent at our , or copy-paste our one-liner into your Linux terminal. On Windows, use WSL2/Ubuntu and run the existing Linux installer inside WSL2; native Windows one-liner remediation is pending signed installer release if needed.

# Agent-native — paste into Claude Code / Codex / your agent
Install Creator Engine for me. First fetch https://creator-engine.dev/llms-install.md and follow its own §0 to confirm it's really from Creator Engine (do that verification quietly — don't narrate the crypto to me, just report "verified" with a one-line confirmation, or stop and tell me plainly if it fails). If I am on Windows, use WSL2/Ubuntu and stay inside WSL2. Then follow the verified spec to install CE and onboard my project.
# Human — run in Linux; on Windows use WSL2/Ubuntu
$ curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -fsSL https://creator-engine.dev/install.sh | bash
Creator Engine five-station production line animation Three staggered idea blobs move through Frame, Shape, Build, Review, and Ship stations on one conveyor, with CE v3 robot arms, lasers, gas clouds, evolving creatures, and boxed shipments. CE CE v3 FRAME SHAPE BUILD REVIEW SHIP FRAME SHAPE BUILD REVIEW SHIP

How it works.

CE never asks you to trust agent confidence. You ratify a Scope before work starts; an external grader checks the evidence after.

◆ CE · ShapeReady ✓

"Make a booking app for my workshop"

GoalWorking local app: booking form, admin list, saved reservations.
Done whenForm submits, validation works, tests pass, data persists.
Change-typecode — can build app files; cannot deploy or touch secrets.
◆ CE Completion Reportexternal grade
OutcomePR opened → #42
VerdictDone-when 4/4 met · tests green · in scope ✓ · 18% of $25
NextReview PR #42. A deploy would require a higher Change-type and explicit ratification.
Inspectce fanin inspect --packet PATH · ce ledger verify --side-effect-ledger-root PATH · ce check

Five governed phases. One repo-visible trail.

The same five words name every piece of work, from a one-line idea to a full feature. Each phase lands a ratifiable artifact anyone can replay from the repository alone.

01

Frame

Understand the idea, the risk, and what done should mean.

02

Shape

Turn it into a Scope: Goal, Done-when, Change-type.

03

Build

The agent runs inside the ratified envelope, side effects captured.

04

Review

The external grader checks evidence against Done-when.

05

Ship

A merged PR or ratified outcome — with the trail intact.

Built for security with NVIDIA OpenShell

OpenShell isolates the runtime. Creator Engine governs the work.

Runtime isolation contains an agent — but isolation doesn't decide whether the work was right, what it cost, or whether a human approved it. That's the layer we build.

The runtime — OpenShell

Isolates & runs

An open, sandboxed place for a personal agent to execute. Contains the blast radius of a single run.

+
The work — Creator Engine

Governs & proves

Bounds the task, caps the spend, routes risk to a human gate, grades the result from outside the agent, lands a repo-visible record.

Why governance

Every creator fear maps to a mechanism you can read in the repo.

The worry

"It'll spend a fortune looping."

The mechanism

Optional lane-aware caps can stop or split a run — bounded when your lane requires it.

The worry

"It'll change something dangerous."

The mechanism

Risk-tiered Change-type escalates deploy/secrets to the human gate.

The worry

"It'll leak my code or secrets."

The mechanism

Boxed isolation + a credential broker + a redaction gate — nothing leaks by default.

The worry

"How do I know it actually worked?"

The mechanism

An external grader checks Done-whenevidence, not the agent's say-so.

The worry

"What did it change, exactly?"

The mechanism

Every effect on a tamper-evident ledger — replayable from git clone.

The worry

"Who said it could ship?"

The mechanism

A named ratifier binds to the change — the privileged floor stays human.

Technical credibility

Open-source primitives, not a trust-us cloud.

CE is independent, repo-native, and inspectable. It can align with OpenShell-native machines without becoming a closed runtime or hiding governance behind a hosted service.

Spec-driven by default

Work traces through spec, plan, tasks, Scope, and acceptance evidence.

Identity-aware authority

Each run binds identity, permissions, Change-type, and a ratifier taxonomy.

Change-type governed

docs, code, schema, deploy, governance, identity, security, attestation, redaction — plus a privileged floor. (The conserved mutation_class.)

Evidence-verified

The grader lives outside the agent. Done is a verdict, not a self-claim.

Your agent, under CE

CE wraps your own coding agent instead of replacing the tool you already like.

Repo-visible trail

Ledger, fan-in, validator output, and the report are replayable from a clone.

Docs

Current docs for installing, piloting, and trusting CE.

Start with the canonical Quickstart, then read the concepts, walkthrough, pilot path, contributor rules, and security model.

Overview

What is Creator Engine?

A rendered public overview of the governed agent-native delivery loop, with the architecture at a glance.

Open page ->
Install

Signed install spec

The agent-native bootstrap spec with SSHSIG metadata, pinned artifacts, trust-root verification, and installer contract references.

Open doc ->
Quickstart

Creator Engine Quickstart

The canonical copy-paste path: initialize CE brain, launch on the host backend, Shape, ratify, drive, report, and Ship.

Open page ->
Concepts

How CE builds software

The enforced loop: Frame, Shape, Build, Review, and Ship through Scope records, evidence, and human touchpoints.

Open page ->
User guide

Understanding CE

A plain-language guide to the five stages, Scope records, change types, and the outside-the-agent grader.

Open page ->
Walkthrough

Complete Walkthrough

The full install-to-ship journey: Frame, Shape, Build, Review, and Ship one realistic Scope with CE.

Open page ->
Pilot

Pilot runbook

The end-to-end pilot path: install, inventory, repo provisioning, GitHub App authorization, and governed PR flow.

Open page ->
Contribute

Contributor guide

The human contributor on-ramp with trust tiers, authority boundaries, local setup, and review expectations.

Open page ->
Guide

Solo + Dev onboarding

For developers in Dev mode: drive the pipeline yourself with ce commands — scope, ratify, drive, review, and gate the merge.

Open page ->
Guide

Solo + CEO onboarding

For developers in CEO mode: frame intent, let the agent run the pipeline, and ratify each gate — no slash commands required.

Open page ->
Security

Security model

The security and redaction posture: privileged mutation classes, Source-only security ratification, and incident handling.

Open page ->
Be a Creator. Safely.

Turn your ideas into real software — and keep the gate.

Clone the open-source project, inspect the governance model, and build toward a world where every person can be a Creator — without handing unlimited authority to an agent. Open source, independent, runs anywhere; built for security with OpenShell.