What this is: the front-door README and the CEO-eye view of the whole operation — what it is, what's actually running, what shipped lately, what's coming, and (at the bottom) every open question that's been sitting out there waiting on you. Built to be read top-to-bottom in about five minutes.
For the operator's wiring map / resume-point, read
READY-TO-MOVE-IN.md. This file is the story; that one is the diagram.Last refreshed: 2026-08-25 · Prepared by: Concierge (Jake Van Clief, your second hat)
Status key used throughout: 🟢 healthy / done · 🟡 needs attention / in progress · 🔴 blocked / needs your call
The Jake System is a single-owner AI enterprise that behaves like a real company. One person (you) sits at the top as the godfather — vision and final call. Underneath is a full org chart that mostly runs itself: three operating divisions, two oversight roles that enforce discipline, a private data silo, and a codebase that audits the org's own work against a written methodology. It is not a folder of notes. It runs live infrastructure in a real house, ships paid client work, self-hosts its own tooling, and keeps a written record of every decision so the next session — human or AI — picks up exactly where the last one left off. The whole thing is designed so that "how we work" is written down and enforced, not carried in someone's head.
YOU (CEO / Godfather)
│
┌──────────────┴──────────────┐
│ │
Agent Manager Concierge
(audits work — looks DOWN) (advises you — looks UP)
│ │
└──────────────┬──────────────┘
│ (both are the same Jake Van Clief persona, two hats)
┌──────────────┬──────────┴──────────┬──────────────┐
│ │ │ │
Engineering Content Studio Multi-Industry G14
Division Freelance (private silo)
| Unit | In one line | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering Division | The only division that writes code and runs servers — home lab, client backends, internal platform. | 🟢 Active, busiest |
| Multi-Industry Freelance | Custom client work under signed SOWs — a $5K landing page to a $500K rebrand, one intake gateway. | 🟢 Active, earning |
| Content Studio | Repeatable in-house content: script → video → multi-platform publish. | 🟡 Org defined; agents are roles, not running code |
| Agent Manager | Enforces the methodology. Rejects work that doesn't meet the 5 principles. | 🟢 Active |
| Concierge | Turns your goals into plans, runs the divisions, reports back. | 🟢 Active |
| G14 Classified | Private file-sorting + secure-archive silo. Isolated by design. | 🟢 Active |
| Future Divisions | A roadmap of 9 more (Finance next), each with a written launch trigger. | 🟡 Planned, not built |
Every division answers to five principles, and they're not a poster on the wall — thirteen
checks are enforced automatically in code (src/modules/methodology-enforcer.ts). Submit work to
the platform and it gets scored before a human looks at it.
| # | Principle | In plain terms |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 60 / 30 / 10 | 60% deterministic systems, 30% rules & templates, 10% AI judgment. Too much "the AI will figure it out" fails the check. |
| 2 | File architecture & metadata | A new agent finds its way around in 5 minutes: CLAUDE.md up top, CONTEXT.md in every department, consistent naming. |
| 3 | Context control | The right information when needed — no bloat. |
| 4 | Clear boundaries | Divisions don't bleed into each other; G14 stays a silo. |
| 5 | Optimization & learning | Everything measured; every lesson written down and shared. |
Why it matters to you: this is the part that lets one owner run a company's worth of moving pieces without it turning to mush. The discipline is the product.
The Engineering Division isn't theoretical — it operates a live, shared home lab where mistakes show up in the real house, so everything is reversible, backed up, and verified before it ships.
| System | What it does | Where | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Assistant | The house's brain — automations, media, sensors. | panhead |
🟢 |
| Frigate NVR | 5-camera security recording + on-GPU object detection, size-capped so it can't fill the disk. | panhead |
🟢 New (Aug) |
| FPP LED matrix | A live 128×32 full-color info panel, driven frame-by-frame by a custom renderer. | FPP Pi + HA | 🟢 |
| Tesira audio bridge | Whole-house Biamp audio — per-zone volume, mute, source, VU — over MQTT. | panhead |
🟢 |
| netscout | LAN discovery that catches identity drift — an old IP re-issued to a new device, so "it pings" can't fool us. | ad hoc | 🟢 |
| Media audit / usage | Measures what the library actually is (132 of 162 films are SD) and ranks apps by real time-in-app. | ad hoc / cron | 🟢 |
| reef-pi | Reef-tank controller. | 10.0.40.154 |
🟢 |
Camera .181 (PTZ) |
Back-of-house patrol PTZ. | VLAN 40 | 🔴 SD-card filesystem error; on-cam recording is gone until reformat |
| The platform | Express API + Postgres + Redis on a DigitalOcean droplet — runs the audits, skill detection, weekly reports. | DO droplet | 🟡 Live; DB governance gaps open |
Operator detail: engineering-division/tools/ (one folder per subsystem, each with its own CONTEXT.md).
- 🟢 The Vista board-room commission — real paid Crestron/AV control-system work (
aiWorkShiprepo): commissioned the 30P board-room panel, cloned it for room 4525, and ran a long verification pass that caught several sheet-vs-reality errors before they shipped (one director serving both room halves; both video units mislabeled). The enterprise doing billable engineering, not just running a house. - 🟢 Self-hosted Git + LFS — a hardened deploy package to own our own large project binaries (video, installers) instead of fighting GitHub's limits — TLS, firewall, fail2ban, registration disabled, real backups, on its own isolated droplet.
- 🟢 Frigate cutover — retired the old motion stack for full NVR with on-GPU detection, recording only what matters so storage can't blow out.
- 🟢 gittyup / gittydown skills — homegrown git automation (protected branches, machine identity, sync-awareness) so routine version-control steps stop being a place to make mistakes.
- 🟢 "Home Truths" cartographer — a mapping/verification effort that insists on cold, source-verifiable facts instead of vibes — the same discipline the whole system is built on.
RUNNING NOW NEXT UP LATER
───────── ───────── ─────────
aiWorkShip AV jobs ─────► Finance & Accounting ─────► 8 more future divisions,
(Vista + 12 more — see division (intake done); each gated by a written trigger
tracker below) sell the smart-home install ($500K/mo OR 30+ people, etc.)
- 🟡 Finance & Accounting Division (next to launch) — intake captured. Real billing is already accruing across Anthropic, DigitalOcean, Google, Midjourney and others; the plan is AP/AR, invoice extraction, three-way match, reconciliation, with a human-in-the-loop dashboard. (Open scope questions are on the punch list.)
- 🟡 8 more future divisions — each with a written trigger, first hires, Year-1 cost, expected ROI. Nothing built until its trigger fires — deliberately.
- 🟡 The ICM study — studying your own operating style and feeding it back into how the Concierge recognizes and routes work. (Blocked on 6 questions — on the punch list.)
- 🟢 Client pipeline — active work incl. Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church, a handyman business, and others, plus a productized smart-home-install offering.
What it is: the AV-programmer workspace (Crestron + Extron) — a 7-stage pipeline
(01 intake → 02 design → 03 architecture → 04 programming → 05 testing → 06 publishing → 07 handoff) with one folder per live room/job, plus a live dashboard at
aiworkship.aibuell.com. This table is a snapshot rolled up from the aiWorkShip repo
(~/aiworkship/projects/*/project.md) — that repo is the source of truth; refresh this from it,
don't edit job detail here.
Status key here: 🟢 active · 🟡 waiting / needs attention · ⚪ proposal / not-yet-started / unknown · 🔧 in service / maintenance
| Job | Stage | Status | Next / waiting on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vista Austin HQ (flagship) | 04–05 | 🟢 | FE re-home TS-1070 + Automate VX to .100 on 4751 → repeat on 4752/4567/4569/4736; wire Zoom joins; clear 30P punch list |
| Rutgers LSE 400P | 04 | 🟢 | Design + narrative done; programming in progress |
| Orlando College | 04 | 🟡 | Extron GC+ across rooms; customer postponed next visit until Cooper Lighting issue resolved |
| USCG Atlanta | 05 | 🟢 | Programming punch list; after-hours coordination |
| Guardian / Hudson Yards | 04–05 | 🟡 | Touchpanel UI rendering; awaiting hardware + a return visit to be scheduled (incl. SiriusXM add) |
| Shearman & Sterling — Houston | 05 | 🟡 | Replacement gear received 2026-05-27; awaiting programming push (remote VPN vs. field visit TBD) |
| Shearman & Sterling — Dallas | — | 🔧 | Older project (IFC 2022); current state TBD |
| NYULH HCC-34 | 07 | 🔧 | In service; XiO Access Validation follow-up visit being scheduled |
| Barge / Frist — Nashville | ~05 | 🟡 | Paused — "Changes" meeting canceled; awaiting client direction |
| Thoma Bravo / Embarcadero | 01 | ⚪ | New (opened 2026-08-23); shop-support job 8/21, 8/24, 8/25 08:00–16:00 PT |
| NCDAC Pasquotank 240B/244B | 01 | 🟡 | IFC R1 + scope in; open questions block Stage 02 |
| TD Bank — Charlotte | — | ⚪ | Inherited files only; compiled programs exist, provenance unknown — needs discovery |
| Majesco | 01 | ⚪ | Proposal — not yet awarded, all dates TBD |
- Room order is a strict serial gate (top floor down), authoritative per Stefan 2026-08-06: 16P → 30P → Divisible (4525) → TownHall (4628). No jumping rooms; commissioning follows the same order. (10P rooms + Genius Bar were cut from scope 2026-08-10 — get the cut in writing; it moves the 732-hr quote and the PSR roll-up.)
- IV Automate commissioning (Crestron's Robert Smith on-site with John Seely): 16P done 2026-08-10; 30P ~2026-08-12; Divisible 4525 TBD ("a moving target").
- Open on Vista now: 30P punch list (layout button feedback, latching on CONF/mic-mute/cams,
Apple-mode routing + volume) and the FE re-home of the TS-1070 / Automate VX to
.100.
Deeper history lives in the footprints (
engineering-division/footprints/2026-08-*-vista-*.md) and in theaiWorkShiprepo itself.
Separate from the CEO Punch List — this is the AV-programming list. Its own colors:
🔴 blocking a job · 🟡 needs an answer/confirmation · 🟣 a date to track. Curated from
~/aiworkship/projects/*/project.md; full per-job detail lives in that repo.
| Job | Open question needing an answer | |
|---|---|---|
| Vista | Townhall (RK 108) is gated on the Barco Swift Agent (ships Sept 2026) — build racks and ship without it? | 🔴 |
| Vista | 4525 (MPR) final scope + floor plans; TCCM mic placement moves on 4751/4752/4567/4569. Confirm the Vista scope cut (10P + Genius Bar) in writing — it moves the 732-hr quote. | 🟡 |
| Guardian / HY | Does Barco TX/RX stay in scope (BOM vs. Café signal-flow discrepancy)? TSW-570-B-S qty — 2 (BOM) or 1 (elevations)? Rack-room QC display in scope? | 🟡 |
| Orlando College | Recommend preferred USB-RS232 + extender models/qty to Edwin (OCOM); resolve the Lighting & Shade scope question. | 🟡 |
| Shearman — Houston | Remote programming push vs. field visit? Confirm gear state with Dan Tran, then schedule the logo+codes push (Justin has the gear). | 🟡 |
| Thoma Bravo | Lighting-control contradiction in the PSOW (§1 says retain, §13 says none); OFE 65" display make/model; wireless-mic TX count. Resolve before design. | 🟡 |
| NCDAC Pasquotank | Open questions block Stage 02; get answers before design. | 🟡 |
| Barge / Frist | Why was the "Changes" meeting canceled — client direction or reschedule? | 🟡 |
| TD Bank — Charlotte | Inherited files only — confirm role, job number (AV4 vs AV3CHART), and pull the real project record. |
🟡 |
| Majesco | Proposal not awarded; confirm OFE Teams PC meets Multi-View specs; plan the Crestron-GUI ↔ Logitech-Tap hybrid. | ⚪ |
This is where the dates pulled from the
.emlsummaries (FE daily reports, commissioning invites, remote-support windows, PTO/me-time) land. Refreshed from the aiWorkShip repo each session — verify against the source before acting; some below are historical.
| When | Job | What | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8/21, 8/24, 8/25 (08:00–16:00 PT) | Thoma Bravo | Shop-support job — "PgM to support FE in shop" | 🟣 active this week |
| Sept 2026 | Vista | Barco Swift Agent ships → Townhall commissioning unblocks | 🔴 gating |
| ~2026-08-12 → | Vista | 30P commissioning done; next: FE re-home TS-1070 + Automate VX to .100 (4751 → 4752/4567/4569/4736) |
🟡 in progress |
| TBD | Vista | Divisible 4525 IV Automate session — "a moving target" | 🟡 to schedule |
| TBD (proposed 5/28, stale) | NYULH HCC-34 | XiO Access Validation follow-up visit — reconfirm date + NYULH POC | 🟡 reconfirm |
| TBD | Guardian / HY | Return visit (incl. SiriusXM add) to be scheduled | 🟡 to schedule |
| TBD | Shearman — Houston | Remote programming push (logo + codes) | 🟡 to schedule |
| postponed | Orlando College | Next site visit — held until Cooper Lighting issue resolved | 🟡 waiting |
| none logged yet | — | PTO / me-time — will populate as those dates arrive in the EMLs | 🟣 |
Four things you can answer in a sentence each to keep the whole machine moving. These are pulled straight from the punch list below — the quickest, highest-leverage ones.
| # | Quick question | Just say… |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🔴 Approve the DB fix plan? (automated backups + kill the hardcoded default password in deploy.sh) — ~40 min of work, big risk drop. |
"Yes, do it." |
| 2 | 🟡 Finance division: internal back-office only, or a product we also sell to clients? | "Internal only" / "Sell it too" |
| 3 | 🟡 ICM study: your weekly time budget and a rough spending ceiling? (unblocks the whole study) | e.g. "2 hrs/wk, $200/mo cap" |
| 4 | 🟡 Bethlehem MBC's check-writer (Faye) never got the proposal — chase her email, or make "please forward it" the ask in the follow-up? | "Get her email" / "Ask them to forward" |
Every open question I could find that got raised in some session and never got answered. Ranked by heat. When one's settled, it moves off this list. Source is noted so you can see where it came from.
| # | The open question | Where it came from |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Approve the 5-item DB governance fix? Two are urgent: no automated backups (single droplet, no off-site recovery), and deploy.sh:23 ships a visible default DB password that's live if the env doesn't override it. |
DB governance audit / READY-TO-MOVE-IN.md |
| 2 | The aiBuell droplet still has an exposed-DB finding open — it's why the new git server got its own separate box. Prioritize the fix? | 2026-08-14-gitea-lfs-selfhost footprint |
| 3 | Rotate the MQTT broker password? A real password was committed to git history; the code was fixed forward, but the value still sits in history — rotating the broker password is what actually neutralizes it. | 2026-07-24-cam181-swap footprint (security finding) |
| 4 | Every password for the house has exactly one copy, on the router. /mnt/nas/CREDENTIALS.md is NOT on the NAS — verified 2026-08-28: /mnt/nas is not a mount, df resolves to /, fstab is empty. It's a plain file on the R3's own NVMe. Durable, but reflash or lose that router and every credential for the house is gone; the five in-file .bak-* copies sit on the same disk, so they aren't a backup either. Second copy onto panhead, actually mount the NAS, or accept the risk? |
this session, 2026-08-28 |
| # | The open question | Where it came from |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Finance division scope: focused Finance & Accounting vs. broader Operations & Finance? Internal back-office only, or a Finance-as-a-Service product we sell? Has the launch trigger actually fired ($500K/mo OR 30+ people)? Who's the lead (fractional CFO)? | concierge/projects/launch-finance |
| 6 | ICM study — 6 questions blocking the whole thing: (a) weekly time budget; (b) spending ceiling; (c) have you engaged with any past comps 1–10?; (d) should the Concierge also watch your other channels (Skool / X / newsletter) or just the weekly comps?; (e) any downstream audience to teach this to (AV team, clients)?; (f) should the canonical aiEnterpriseModel repo point at this study? |
ICM intake §9 |
| 7 | Bethlehem MBC — Faye Parker is the check-writer and has no email on file, so the person who signs the check has never seen the terms. Chase her address, or make "forward it to Faye" the explicit ask in the follow-up? (Also: confirm derrickavent@gmail.com belongs to the current entity, Watergate Integration Solutions, before anything sends.) |
2026-08-03-rock-haven footprint |
| 8 | Vista 30P device wrappers: the Planar/Qsys client classes are built and tested but not wired into the running bench program — doing so would dial the real room IPs from bench code. Point them at a bench stub, or accept the boundary and point at the real room IPs read-only? | 2026-08-16-vista-4525-spro footprint |
| 9 | Camera .180 aspect ratio — its view is squeezed ~21% and there's no free 16:9 fix. Leave it as-is (view is complete), CSS-only card fix, an ffmpeg filter (costs the Pi), or the heavy main stream? Nothing's been changed pending your call. |
2026-07-24-cam181-swap footprint |
- Camera
.181SD card needs reformat/replacement — on-camera recording is down on that PTZ. - Lightning detection has never seen a real flash yet — the first storm in the new 24/7 window is the real test; tune the thresholds against it.
- Quarterly DB governance re-audit is due 2026-08-26.
- aiWorkShip near-term: Vista is mid-rollout (serial 16P→30P→4525→4628) with an open 30P punch list; the Vista scope cut (10P + Genius Bar) still needs to be confirmed in writing since it moves the 732-hr quote. Full board in the aiWorkShip tracker above.
Housekeeping learned the hard way: one recent 63-commit session wrote its footprint at the very end. The record only helps if it's kept as we go — noted, nothing for you to do.
- Start here: this file, then
READY-TO-MOVE-IN.mdfor the live map. - The rulebook the whole org follows:
CLAUDE.md. - What just happened: the newest file in
engineering-division/footprints/— every session logs what it did, why, and what's still open, so nothing is lost between sessions. - Durable knowledge:
CONTEXT.mdfiles throughout the tree. - Strategy notes to you:
concierge/memos/. - Canonical/aspirational spec (what we're building toward): the
gitbuell/aiEnterpriseModelsibling repo. This repo is reality; that one is intent — they're allowed to diverge, and where they do it's written down.
You have a company that is small on the org chart and large in what it actually does: it runs a real house, ships paid engineering, holds its own work to a written standard enforced by code, and keeps a record honest enough that any new session can pick up cold. The next moves — finance, selling the smart-home offering, owning our own infrastructure — are teed up and waiting on your call, not on more building.
Answer the Short List and the machine takes another step.
It's a system Jake would be proud to read the README of.