Intelligence is grown. Control is engineered.

panicAtk is an independent AI engineering studio. It builds software for real work, agentic systems and cloud infrastructure, with a person holding the gate wherever AI acts.

Read the case files How it is built

Case files

PAN-102Published

Agent teams with a board

Small teams of agents take tasks. None may push, deploy, spend or approve its own request.

GATEApprove-first on push, deploy, spend and wider accessSTACKNode 24 · Postgres · React · WSL2 · bubblewrap PAN-105Published

Cloud ops behind a digest

An agent can read one AWS account. To change it, a person approves the exact action it was shown.

GATEApproval bound to a digest, rechecked at executionSTACKPython · FastAPI · MCP · React · CloudFormation PAN-110Live

Skills that keep their scars

Every trap a project hits is written down and fed back into the playbook the next one starts from.

GATEA person decides what gets promoted into a skillSTACKClaude Code skills · Git · Python · PowerShell PAN-088Prototype

Approvals signed on the phone

Cloud alerts reach the phone through Do Not Disturb. Any action waits for a signature from that phone.

GATEA device-bound signature over what the screen showedSTACKKotlin · AWS SAM · Python 3.12 · Cognito · DynamoDB PAN-126Live

PMB case desk

A case desk for PMB disputes. Nothing reaches a patient or a practice until a person sends it.

INDUSTRYMedicalSTACKNext.js 16 · TypeScript · PostgreSQL · Prisma · AWS PAN-142In flight

Notes that freeze when signed

A physio practice's diary, notes and ledger. A signed note is frozen, and corrections become addenda.

INDUSTRYMedicalSTACKNext.js 16 · TypeScript · PostgreSQL · Prisma · HL7 and FHIR PAN-131In flight

Shelf to charge sheet

Stock, bookings and charge sheets for a medical unit, on a ledger that refuses to be edited.

INDUSTRYMedicalSTACKNext.js 16 · TypeScript · PostgreSQL 16 · Prisma · AWS SES PAN-074In flight

A back office that audits itself

Orders to payroll to SARS prep in one ledger, written by one AI agent that also wrote its own audit.

INDUSTRYSmall businessSTACKNext.js 16 · TypeScript · PostgreSQL 16 · Prisma · AWS PAN-138In flight

Town directory, remastered

An old town directory, rebuilt by agents. Every old address still lands, and the tides are computed.

INDUSTRYTourismSTACKNext.js 16 · PostgreSQL · Prisma · MapLibre · AWS EC2 PAN-115In flight

Casual contracts, checked nightly

An HR spreadsheet of casual contracts, replaced by dated legal rules that check every chain each night.

INDUSTRYFoodSTACKPython 3.13 · Django 5.2 · PostgreSQL 17 · HTMX · Docker Compose PAN-119In flight

Loan intake that questions the photo

A housing loan form sent as a chat link, which asks each property photo where and when it was taken.

INDUSTRYHousingSTACKNode.js · Express · exifr · PostgreSQL (schema only)

Method

Step 1
Feed
Define the question, the data, and what the system is allowed to touch.
Step 2
Constrain
Budgets, permissions and a human gate before anything acts.
Step 3
Verify
An independent check, plus failures injected on purpose.
Step 4
Release
Ship it, or publish why it did not survive.

Field notes

All 28 field notes

NOTE 001The model that made up its own tool result2 min · PAN-105 NOTE 002An approval queue an agent could approve3 min · PAN-102 NOTE 003The denial test that could have been a real command2 min · PAN-088 NOTE 004Two guards that said yes to nothing3 min · PAN-105 NOTE 005A playbook rots at the second project3 min · PAN-110 NOTE 006A day early is annoying2 min

About

panicAtk is an independent AI engineering studio working on agentic systems, cloud infrastructure and the guardrails between them. It builds software for real work, most of it with AI doing the labour. Where AI acts, a person holds the gate. Everything is tested and written up plainly, failures included.

Contact

For collaboration, or questions about the work.

info@panicatk.com