From know-how
to done.
Howware is your know-how, put to work by AI. You state the rules in your own words; an AI agent follows them, with a few exact tools and a memory you own.
› Yesterday I spent 180 on lunch, in cash. ✓ Recorded, with your words as evidence. › OXXO is groceries, not convenience. ✓ New rule, applied to your whole history. › How am I doing with my grocery budget? $3,180.40 of $4,000.00 (79 %). $819.60 left for 9 days.
The handoff problem
The person who knows how something should work is almost never the person who builds it. Meaning gets lost in translation, every rule makes the code more complicated, and every change waits its turn.
Today
And around the rules, an app — screens, forms, a backend — that everyone has to learn.
With howware
Code only for what must be exact — reading documents, money, dates, storage — in small tools that rarely change.
The next step after the spreadsheet
The spreadsheet was the first time people who don't program could put their own know-how to work without asking anyone. Howware takes the same idea further.
| Spreadsheet | Howware | |
|---|---|---|
| Rules are written as | Formulas | Your own words |
| The interface is | A grid | A conversation |
| Data gets in by | Typing or pasting | Tools that read your documents |
| Who does the work | You, cell by cell | An AI agent, following your rules |
| A change takes effect | When you type it | In the next conversation |
What a howware is made of
Five parts. The agent that runs it — Claude Code, Codex or another — is not one of them, just as the browser is not part of a web page.
Protocol
Your know-how in plain words: steps, criteria, rules, what to ask, what never to do. You can read it and change it.
Tools
Small programs for the exact operations of the job: money in cents, dates, identifiers, reports.
Adapters
Shared programs that connect howwares to your documents and data, and remove personal data at the edge.
Memory
Your data and the rules you teach, in a place you own, with history. Nothing is silently overwritten.
Conversation
The only interface. You say what you need; the agent asks when something is unclear.
Nine principles
From the manifesto.
- The person with the know-how is the author.No translation to a developer, no queue.
- The conversation is the interface.No screens to build, no menus to learn.
- Code only what must be exact.Judgment lives in words; exactness lives in tested tools.
- The agent decides; the tools do the work.It never transcribes records or does the arithmetic.
- The person approves.The agent proposes; nothing outward-facing without an explicit request.
- The person owns the data.Readable, portable, with history.
- Privacy by design, stated honestly.Minimize what reaches the model; say what you can't guarantee.
- Small enough to audit.A text file and a few short tools anyone can read.
- Composable and open.Open pieces, each useful alone — not a sealed product.
Honest limits
- There is still code — less, and only where exactness matters.
- Words are less precise than formulas, so the agent proposes, you approve, and exact operations live in tested tools.
- What the agent sees leaves your computer for your AI provider. Every howware states what stays local, what the agent sees and what it cannot guarantee.
When not to use it
- Visual or spatial work: design, maps, video, games.
- Real-time or high-frequency work: trading, live dashboards, point of sale.
- When a button's milliseconds matter more than flexibility.
- Jobs with no judgment in them — a script or a spreadsheet may be simpler.
The test: if you removed the screens from the app you have in mind, would most of its value remain?
Build a howware
Two skills for Claude Code and Codex: one builds a howware with you, the other reviews it against the specification.
1 · Install the skills
git clone https://github.com/howware/howware python howware/tools/install_skills.py
2 · Install the memory
git clone https://github.com/howware/long-term-memory-for-AI python long-term-memory-for-AI/tools/install_skill.py \ --target ~/.claude/skills/project-memory
3 · Tell your agent
I want to turn the way I <do something> into a howware.
Howwares
finanzas-personales
Personal finances with no app: bank statements read and anonymized on your computer, categories that learn as rules, cash in a sentence, budgets with history, card payment reminders, monthly close. An optional module looks ahead: credits and mortgages, weekly to yearly forecasts and a debt payoff plan that adjusts as you go.
todo
Getting Things Done without an app: capture without friction, clarify, "what do I do now?", reminders until things are done, and the GTD weekly review — with your own areas and rules. See how it was built.
facturacion
Invoicing for Mexican freelancers: the deposits in your bank statements become the invoices to issue, with exact amounts, checked against what was stamped, through the declaration and its payment. See how it was built.
arrendamiento
Rentals for landlords: the rent checked against your bank statements and applied to the month it pays; services, property tax, repairs with their warranties, the yearly increase and the deposit, in one list of what is pending. It shares the memory with invoicing, so a rent paid early is invoiced for the right month. See how it was built.
repaso
Learn and don't forget: tell your agent what you want to learn, or what you just learned. It makes the cards, quizzes you five minutes a day, grades your answers in your own words and brings each card back right before you would forget it, scheduled with FSRS, the algorithm Anki uses. Study plans for long topics and a streak without guilt. Any subject, any language. See how it was built.
bitacora
Your journal, like a bullet journal without an app: tell your agent what you did and what happened today. It keeps your habits exact (sleep, the gym, water, whatever you choose to track), your notes with their signifiers (– note, ○ event, ! idea), and the collections you build as you go (books, movies, ideas), with your streaks and the month's grid. It never nags you to log, and once a month walks you through a reflection where you decide what continues. It shares its memory with todo, so a to-do you mention lands in your inbox. No health advice: just your own record. See how it was built.
eventos-sociales
Planning a wedding, XV años or a baptism? Tell your agent the date. A countdown template says what to do and when, from twelve months before to the thank-you notes, and you add, move or drop steps; if the date changes, everything moves with it. Starting late is fine: it separates what was already due and helps you choose what comes first. It keeps the budget, vendors, payments and who made them, the padrinos, the guest list with RSVPs and the tables exact. For couples and for wedding planners with several events. See how it was built.
Adapters
Shared by howwares, each in its own repository.
- project-memory — the owner's memory: local, append-only, with history.
- mxbank — Mexican bank statements to anonymized, reconciled JSON.
- mxsat — SAT invoices and declaration receipts, with personal data kept local.
Read more
- Manifesto — the definition and nine principles.
- Whitepaper — patterns, anti-patterns, privacy, limits, comparison.
- Specification — what a howware must have, and a conformance checklist.
- Template — a working howware skeleton.
Where it goes next
Explored in the open, with the same principles.
Personal
One person, one machine, one memory. Personal finance is the first howware.
Teams
Shared memory, roles, approvals and audit: who may change which rules, and who said what.
Enterprise
Identity, permissions, compliance, signed protocol packages and evaluation across model versions.
Hardware runs it. Software executes it. Howware knows how.