What ARDS is

ARDS is a system for getting software built by AI agents, with humans in the loop.

The shape is simple:

  1. You describe what you want, in plain language, in a conversation.
  2. ARDS turns the conversation into a mission, then breaks the mission into tasks. A mission can also run a workflow — a saved, pre-approved graph of steps — instead of ad-hoc decomposition.
  3. AI coders pick up the tasks and do the work, each in its own sandboxed environment.
  4. Everything they produce lands in a review mirror first — a separate copy of your repository that you can inspect.
  5. Nothing reaches your real repository until you approve it. The same holds when a mission runs a workflow — a run's changes land only when you accept the run.

The last point is the important one. You're not handing over a credit card and letting bots merge code at will. The review step is non-optional, by design.

What you bring: a repository you'd like changes made to (or an empty one to start with), and credentials for at least one AI provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, or a compatible one).

What ARDS brings: orchestration, the coders, the review mirror, and a place to talk to it all.

Why two layers (mirror + origin)

If you've used GitHub bot integrations that commit directly to main, the mirror layer will feel unfamiliar at first. The reason it exists:

  • Coders make mistakes. Bots that push straight to your repo make you the recovery plan.
  • The mirror is yours. If a coder writes something wrong, it dies on the mirror without ever touching origin.
  • Approval is one click. Rejecting and asking for changes is also one click.

Once you've approved a change on the mirror, ARDS pushes it through to your origin on your behalf.

What ARDS isn't

A few things ARDS isn't trying to be:

  • A code editor. You read code in the review screen; you don't write code in ARDS.
  • A CI/CD platform. ARDS produces commits and PRs. Whether your tests run on push is up to your own CI.
  • A model marketplace. ARDS uses the models you connect via API keys. You bring the provider; ARDS uses it sensibly.

If you skim past this page, the one sentence to remember is: a coder's work lands on a mirror you approve, never directly on your repo.