The Software Factory Foundation
Building the operating standards for AI-powered software engineering.
The Software Factory Foundation is an industry consortium advancing interoperability, standards, and operational best practices for software factories and multi-agent software development systems.
Working Groups
10
Active RFCs
11
Charter
501(c)(6)
Status
Forming · 2026
Advised by
John Kennedy— Founder, Actual AI
Robert Douglas— Founder, Spec-Kitty
Klaus Bravenboer— Founder, Hack Humanity
Jacob Redding— Technical Delivery Lead, Accenture
Bryan Hirsch— CEO, 30to80
Chris Sells— CEO, Gas City
Ryan Waliany— Co-Founder & CEO, Ambiguous
Adam Sah— Managing Director, Zero CapitalWhat is a Software Factory?
A new operating model for building software.
A software factory is a structured, multi-agent system that plans, writes, reviews, tests, and deploys software through coordinated loops — with humans setting direction, approving high-leverage decisions, and continuously refining the system itself.
Software factories are emerging across enterprises, startups, and research labs. They share common architectural patterns: explicit roles, persistent memory, structured handoffs, machine-readable policy, and human-in-the-loop review. What they don't yet share are standards.
- Multi-agent orchestration
- Structured planning loops
- Persistent agent memory
- Machine-readable architecture
- AI-native code review
- Human-in-the-loop approval
- Continuous self-improvement
- Verifiable deployment
The Factory Pipeline
The factory pipeline is a coordination contract — not a fixed implementation. The foundation's standards define the interfaces between stages so tooling from different vendors can compose into coherent factories.
Why Standards Matter
The software factory era needs a coordination layer.
Just as the internet needed RFCs, cloud-native needed CNCF, and the web needed W3C, the software factory era needs a neutral, technical body to coordinate how systems compose.
Interoperability
Enterprises need their agents, models, IDEs, and infrastructure to compose. Standards prevent vendor lock-in and accelerate adoption.
Shared operational models
Factories need common vocabulary for manifests, memory, policy, and lineage so practitioners can move between systems.
Structured coordination
Multi-agent systems require explicit contracts for context, capability, and handoff — not implicit prompt conventions.
Reduced fragmentation
A small set of well-designed standards is the fastest path to a healthy ecosystem of competing implementations.
Working Groups
Ten standards groups defining the software factory stack.
Each working group develops open specifications, schemas, and reference implementations. All groups operate under a public charter with a transparent RFC process.
Memory for Coding Agents
Interoperable approaches for agent memory, context persistence, retrieval, and long-term learning.
Metadata Storage for Factories
Standardize how software factories store metadata about workflows, agents, projects, artifacts, and execution history.
Planning Work & Issue Management
Interoperable standards for AI-native project planning and issue coordination.
Design & Design Systems
Standards for integrating design systems and UI workflows into software factories.
Architecture & Architecture Rules
Machine-readable architectural rules and decision systems for software factories.
Testing & Test Integrations
Standards for testing orchestration across software factories.
Coding Agent Integration
Interoperability standards between coding agents, orchestration systems, and developer tooling.
Code Review Processes
AI-native review workflows for multi-agent software development.
Code Deployment
Operational standards for deploying software generated by software factories.
Continual Improvement
Standards for self-improving software factories.
Foundation Principles
Vendor-neutral. Practitioner-driven. Open by default.
01
Specifications, not products
The foundation produces open standards, reference implementations, and conformance tests — not platforms or paid services.
02
Implementer first
Standards are validated by working code. Every spec must have at least two independent implementations before reaching final status.
03
Operating in the open
Working group meetings are public. Drafts, decisions, and votes are recorded. Members participate as practitioners, not just signatories.
Events & Training
The gathering place for software factory practitioners.
October 14–16, 2026
Software Factory Industry Summit 2026
San Francisco, CA
The annual gathering of the software factory ecosystem. Three days of standards deliberation, keynotes from the practitioners building production factories, and structured working sessions across all ten foundation working groups.
Details →August 18–20, 2026
Software Factory Intensive — Cohort Q3
New York, NY
Three-day hands-on workshop. Engineering teams build a working multi-agent software factory and ship a real project through it. Limited to 60 participants across 12 pods.
Details →June 18–19, 2026
Software Factory Intensive — San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
Two-day training intensive. Engineering teams build a working multi-agent software factory and ship a real project through it.
Details →Membership
Four tiers. One ecosystem.
Membership funds the foundation's open standards work and earns participation rights in working groups and governance.
Enterprise
Large engineering orgs adopting factory practices.
- Working group voting rights
- Steering committee eligibility
- Early research access
- Event discounts for engineering teams
Startup
Tooling vendors and emerging factory teams.
- Working group participation
- Startup showcase access
- Community technical support
Research
Universities, labs, and academic groups.
- Research publication access
- Collaboration programs
- Educational curriculum participation
Community
Individual practitioners and contributors.
- Newsletter and public events
- Open standards participation
- Public working group attendance
Ecosystem
A neutral coordination space for the whole stack.
Software factories don't come from a single vendor — they compose from coding agents, models, IDEs, infrastructure, testing, and review systems. The foundation is where those layers meet.
Enterprise Engineering
- Fortune 500 platform teams
- AI transformation orgs
- Cloud-native engineering
Tooling Vendors
- Coding agent companies
- AI model providers
- IDE & DevOps vendors
- Testing & QA tooling
Research & Education
- University labs
- Independent research groups
- Curriculum authors
Community
- Open-source maintainers
- Standards contributors
- Practitioner working groups
Founding member organizations are being onboarded through 2026. Public membership directory launches with the inaugural Industry Summit.
Express interestJoin the Foundation
Help define the operating standards of the software factory era.
Membership applications are open for founding enterprises, tooling vendors, research institutions, and individual practitioners.
Next step
Apply for founding membership
- Review the foundation charter
- Select your working groups
- Sign the membership agreement