Long-form positioning pieces about
asdand PMA. Written to be readable on their own — for evaluators, decision-makers, social-media writers, and anyone who wants the "why" before the "how". Separate from the reference docs by design.
These pages aren't operational instruction. They don't tell you how
to run a command or configure a manifest. They tell you why
either of these tools exists, who they're for, and what becomes
possible when you use them.
Each essay stands alone — read in any order, link directly from a
Reddit thread or a LinkedIn post, hand to a CTO who's deciding
whether to evaluate.
| Essay | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Why people start using asd | A map of reasons by persona. 25 specific kinds of reader, what hurts in their week, what asd changes about it. The "I'm thinking about adopting this — does it fit me?" page. |
| The magic of asd | The "watch this" tour. 18 specific operational moments where asd does something other tools don't. Three cross-cutting stories. The "I already know asd — tell me why it's interesting" page. |
| The magic of PMA | The emergent properties of stitching 15+ self-hosted services into a coherent platform. Manifest-driven everything, atomic releases, machine-readable runbooks, MCP gateway for AI agents. The "this is more than a SaaS replacement" page. |
| Reference docs | Essays |
|---|---|
| Tell you how to do something | Tell you why something matters |
| Updated when behaviour changes | Updated when the story sharpens |
| Read by people already using the tool | Read by people deciding whether to |
| Linked from inside operations | Linked from outside (Reddit, LinkedIn, RFP responses) |
Live under /asd/... and /projects/... |
Live under /essays/... |
Both are useful; they answer different questions.
The essays double as raw material for talks, blog posts, tweet
threads, RFP answers, and the like. The "hook lines" sections in
each one are pulled out so they're easy to lift directly.
If you write a post or talk based on an essay, link back — the
essay's own readers benefit when the discussion finds them.