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This is how Forge operates: with clients, with each other, and with the people our work touches. It exists to keep us honest, to prevent harm, to make our commitments explicit instead of assumed, and to hold ourselves accountable when we fall short. It applies to everyone who works as or with Forge, and to the clients we partner with.
Most of what is here was learned, not theorized. These commitments come from real engagements over many years, including the ones we did not get right. We have always tried to operate with integrity, and we have not always been perfect. Sometimes the miss was ours, sometimes a teammate's, sometimes a client's, and sometimes it sat outside anyone's control. When it happened, we owned it, learned from it, and changed how we work so it would not repeat. This code is the product of that, and it will keep changing as we do.
A more detailed internal version covers the operational and legal specifics our team formally agrees to. Where this page states a principle, the internal version states the mechanics.
We earn trust through how we work, not just what we ship.
We communicate clearly, honestly, and with care: prepared, direct, and calm under pressure. We practice nonviolent communication and assume good intent, especially when something is hard. When conflict comes up in a client engagement, the Forge lead owns resolving it, and internal issues get raised early rather than sat on.
We deal fairly with everyone: clients, partners, and each other. We do not exploit, mislead, or manipulate, and we do not tell people what they want to hear at the expense of what is true. If we are wrong, we say so early.
Forge is built on equal opportunity. We hire on merit. We respect gender identity, pronouns, and people's choices about their own lives and relationships. We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment in any form.
That standard runs both ways. We hold our clients to it too. Anyone Forge works alongside is expected to meet the same bar, and behavior that crosses it can be raised through the channel below and will be taken seriously.
Forge is fully remote and has been from the start. That is a feature, not a constraint. It lets us work with exceptional people wherever they are and lets our team build work around their lives rather than the reverse.
A remote studio still has a workplace, and the same standards of safety and respect apply to it. Harassment, intimidation, and discrimination are no more acceptable over Slack, video, or email than they would be in a shared office. We protect focus time, respect time zones and boundaries, and do not mistake availability for commitment.
Client trust depends on confidentiality. We protect client information, and we honor the agreements we sign. Client IP belongs to the client: their decisions, architectures, tokens, strategy, and artifacts are theirs. We keep strict isolation between clients, and we do not move one client's confidential material into another's work.
What Forge owns is its own methodology, frameworks, and the meta-patterns we carry from engagement to engagement. We can be proud of the work and reference the relationship where permitted, without ever exposing what was entrusted to us.
Forge is an AI-native studio. We use AI throughout our work, and we are deliberate about how.
All client data processed through AI systems operates under zero data retention via enterprise API. Client information is not used to train models and is not retained beyond the request. Client isolation holds in our AI workflows exactly as it does everywhere else.
We do not misrepresent AI-generated work as something it is not, and we do not use AI to deceive. We are transparent with clients about where and how AI contributes to what we deliver.
AI accelerates our work. It does not lower our standard for it.
We operate honestly and within the law. A few commitments we hold without exception:
This code states principles, not loopholes. Where a specific situation seems to call for an exception, it is raised and decided openly, not assumed. The founder is accountable for any exception, and the reasoning is documented. When in doubt, we choose the more transparent path.
If something here is not being honored, by a teammate, by Forge, or by a client, we want to know. Concerns can be raised directly and in good faith, and they will be taken seriously, looked into, and addressed. Raising a concern honestly will never be held against you.
We would rather hear it early and make it right than protect a reputation we have not earned. That is the whole point of writing this down.
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