Decision Architecture Organisational Software
Decitect turns the Decision Architecture model into an engine you operate. You fix a failing organisation with structural moves (delegate authority, stabilise interfaces, realign incentives, collapse a boundary, resolve contested ownership) and a deterministic model scores the result from 0 to 100.
It is a local-first desktop app: nothing about you or your organisations leaves your machine. Its one network call is an anonymous daily ask of GitHub's releases API for a newer version; a failed check is silent. A short tour is at https://decitect.com/.
Decitect was previously called Fulcrum. The first launch moves ~/.fulcrum
into ~/.decitect; the Windows setup offers to remove an old Fulcrum install.
Commercial licences available. Decitect is free and open source under GPL-3.0, with its interface layer under LGPL-3.0. If those terms do not suit what you are building, such as a closed-source product, a commercial licence can be bought from me separately. It covers my own code; PySide6 keeps its own LGPL-3.0 licence. See commercial licensing.
- Software architects, senior engineers and CTOs who reason about org structure as a system of decisions rather than a headcount chart.
- Readers of the Decision Architecture series who want the model in their hands.
It is not an HR tool, a project tracker or a cloud service; there is no account and no server.
- Model your organisation in a two-pane editor: units nest to any depth with teams as leaves, rows drag like folders, headcounts roll up and dependencies join any two items, team or unit.
- Matrix and dual reporting as authority claims: a claimed team is contested, drawn violet and gets its own repair moves.
- Play generated levels (each leaf seeded so a great move is reachable) or open the bundled calibration organisations.
- The board opens on the complete picture; click a section to drill in, play any level and zoom either map.
- Moves graded from blunder to great, each played move ringed on the maps and kept in a move record that survives restarts. Take moves back with Ctrl+Z, across runs.
- The guide plans every level at once; leaf lines compose into an honest whole-org before and after, with an optional growth line. Large organisations plan deterministically across every core but one; every planning bar can be cancelled.
- Prince band: concentrated authority is priced by the population it governs, forgiven up to 150 people and priced harder beyond 200.
- Seven signals to watch, each with its own definition.
- Autosave of the organisation, its moves and your focus; an unreadable save is kept aside, never overwritten.
- Export a self-contained HTML report to Downloads or JSON you can re-import; every move is judged against the whole org and its own frame.
- Keyboard navigation on one explicit focus ring; light and dark themes.
- Update check a few seconds after launch and daily, with Download, Skip This Version and Later.
- Help built in: glossary, the books, signal definitions and a provenance page for every number.
| Concern | Choice |
|---|---|
| Language | Python 3.11+ (developed on 3.13) |
| UI | PySide6 (Qt for Python) |
| Persistence | Local JSON files |
| Tests | pytest, 100% gate on domain, application, infrastructure, shared and the installer's decision layer |
| Format and lint | black (line length 88), flake8, ruff |
| Packaging | Nuitka (Windows and macOS), Flatpak (Linux) |
| Site | hand-maintained static HTML under docs/, served on GitHub Pages |
| Licence | model GPL-3.0, UI LGPL-3.0 |
Windows:
python -m venv venv
venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python main.py
macOS and Linux:
python3 -m venv venv
source ./venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python main.py
pytest
The suite fails below 100% coverage on the gated layers; see TESTING.md.
Icons, the Windows executable and installer, the macOS disk image, the Linux Flatpak and the site: see DEVELOPMENT.md.
- ARCHITECTURE.md: layers, invariants and the model.
- DEVELOPMENT.md: working from source and the build scripts.
- TESTING.md: the suite and how to read its result.
- TECH_DEBT.md: what is still open, what is deliberately left and what only looks like debt.
- DECISIONS-TRADEOFFS.md: the decisions Decitect rests on, with their gains and costs.
- PREREGISTRATION.md: the blind external validation protocol.
Decitect is free and stays free: no paid tier, no licence key and no feature held back behind a donation. If it has been useful, a donation supports its maintenance. The same link sits in the app's header beside the theme toggle; pressing it hands the address to your browser.
Dual-licensed by component: the model under GPL-3.0 and the user interface (the PySide6 layer) under LGPL-3.0. See LICENSE for the split, with the full texts in LICENSE-GPL-3.0.txt and LICENSE-LGPL-3.0.txt.
A commercial licence for my own code is also available, separately from the open-source licences: see commercial licensing.