Start with what you need to do now. You can improve everyday work without creating an application, or go directly to defining an app.
Operate: start with work
Choose Operate when you want help with a task, want to organise operational knowledge, or see an opportunity to automate part of your work.
Bring one useful example: a report to prepare, information to organise, or a request to work through. You do not need to describe your whole business first.
Three skills help you progress:
- Work completes tasks and keeps track of useful knowledge, terminology, systems, and records.
- Automate helps make suitable tasks repeatable.
- Formalise helps turn what you learn into a focused application opportunity.
Set up SwarmCraft, then choose Operate in VS Code. Operate is free; your AI provider's charges apply separately.
Fast Start: you have a clear application need
Choose Fast Start when you can explain the workflow, who uses it, and what a good result looks like. Your existing system remains the trusted source of records.
A guided browser conversation helps you define and confirm a focused scope before creating a project.
Deep Discovery: the application needs investigation
Choose Deep Discovery when you need to work through documents, existing systems, conflicting requirements, or decisions about which system should own records.
Your AI assistant helps investigate the evidence, and you review the requirements before approving the handoff for project creation.
If you already use Operate, selected operational evidence can inform discovery so you build on what you know.
You are choosing a starting point, not a tier
Operate is not a prerequisite for creating an app, and you can keep using it without ever building one. If a Fast Start conversation reveals important unanswered questions, move to Deep Discovery before approving project creation.
Fast Start and Deep Discovery lead to the same kind of project board and implementation guidance. Both have a fixed fee plus measured generation AI usage; neither delivers a finished or hosted app.
After building an application, Operate can continue helping with everyday work while the project workflow helps you improve the software.
See pricing for costs or How SwarmCraft works for repository ownership and the build process.