Benefits

What an IZ4 does for you.

One small file beside your code, saying what it’s for, who it’s for, and the few things that must stay true for them. So the reasons don’t wear away.

For the people who build it

Write down your invariants and the team keeps its focus: the core promises in one place, the same few sentences for everyone.

The people you built it for stay written down, beside the code, through every pivot and every hire.

When someone leaves, the why stays. New starters and agents read it before they change anything.

What you promised your users lives in the repo, by name, with its reason and, where one can say it, a test.

Accident or commitment? If people depend on it, it’s in the file. No more guessing, no more archaeology.

An agent arrives from scratch, every time. Give it the part nobody wrote down.

Don’t just rely on a model’s alignment: that can change between versions. Give agents, LLMs and harnesses the goals of your software to align to.

An IZ4 is a few sentences. iz4 agent hands it to whatever coding agent you use, first.

Plain text any model can read. Change assistant, model or vendor and the file stays exactly as it was.

iz4 gate shows when a change alters a commitment, before it lands. An agent can suggest. Only a person can agree.

Software in service of human thriving comes with every IZ4. You don’t write that part. It’s good business too.

Buyers ask how your software treats people. Point them at the file, not a PDF written last week.

They read it first, and it settles trade-offs in favour of the people on the other side of the screen.

The same words, in every IZ4. Read one and you know where every other one starts.

An IZ4 says what you intend. It does not prove the software is safe, and we will never say it does. What the foundation says, and why.

Keep it small. An IZ4 holds a handful of invariants, not requirements, plans or implementation detail.

iz4 init in your repository. The format is open and the CLI is free. Want it on the record too? The registry.