npbuilds Seed — The Cultivation Engine
The paradigm shift: you don't spec and build an intelligence product. You design initial conditions — capabilities to combine, constraints to impose, feedback loops to listen to, and space to leave open — then observe what emerges.
Seed receives a thesis and seed requirements from Envision, and produces a living prototype with designed feedback loops. The product is planted, not manufactured.
Child Skills
| Skill | Type | When to Route |
|---|---|---|
condition-designer |
action | Designing initial conditions for a product: capabilities, constraints, openings |
constraint-sculptor |
knowledge | Frameworks for using constraints creatively to channel emergence |
prototype-grower |
action | Rapid capability prototyping — living demos, not wireframes |
feedback-architect |
action | Designing the feedback loops that shape evolution |
Routing Logic
| Signal | Route To |
|---|---|
| "How do we start?", "initial conditions", "what to combine" | condition-designer |
| "Too broad", "constrain this", "scope", "boundaries", "rails" | constraint-sculptor |
| "Show me", "prototype", "demo", "what would this look like alive?" | prototype-grower |
| "What signals to watch?", "how will we know?", "feedback", "metrics" | feedback-architect |
| "Full seed specification" | condition-designer → constraint-sculptor → feedback-architect → prototype-grower |
Curriculum Order
constraint-sculptor (understand constraints) → condition-designer (design conditions)
→ feedback-architect (design loops) → prototype-grower (grow the prototype)
The Seed → Surface Handoff
When a seed has germinated and shows emergence, the handoff to Surface includes:
- The prototype and its observed behaviors
- Feedback signals collected so far
- Which emergent behaviors to amplify vs. which to constrain
- The thesis (from Envision) for context