Resources

Everything you need to adopt the 12-Factor Process.

Downloads

The 12-Factor Checklist

Printable assessment — score your team on all 12 factors. Use it to identify gaps and track progress.

Download Checklist →

The 12-Factor Process Guide

Deep implementation guide for each factor with examples, tools, and common pitfalls to avoid.

Coming Soon

The Shift Explainer

One-pager on what changed and why — shareable with leadership and skeptical colleagues.

Coming Soon

Team Structure Template

How to restructure for small pods — org chart templates, role definitions, and transition guides.

Coming Soon

Score Your Team

Answer 12 questions to see where you stand — and get recommendations for where to start.

1 Do you deploy a preview for every PR?
2 Do CI, pre-commit, and agent hooks run the same checks?
3 Can non-engineers create PRs?
4 Can engineers run multiple agents in parallel, remotely?
5 Are your standards (code style, design system, architecture) documented for agents?
6 Are agent configs (prompts, rules, plugins) version-controlled and shared?
7 Can agents be triggered from Slack, meetings, or email?
8 Do agents and developers work in the same environment?
9 Do you prototype before writing specs?
10 Can agents access your system data in a few API calls?
11 Are your teams 3 people or fewer?
12 Do low-complexity changes auto-merge without approval?
Calculate My Score →

Further Reading

The source material and inspiration for the 12-Factor Process.

Andrej Karpathy's Thread

The original thread on the December 2025 threshold — essential reading on what changed and why.

Read on X →

Obie Fernandez: "What Used to Take Months"

13,000 lines in 4 days — the case study that demonstrates what's now possible.

Read on obie.ai →

Simon Willison's Blog

Essential ongoing coverage of AI-assisted development from the co-creator of Django.

Read on simonwillison.net →

The 12-Factor App

The original inspiration — Heroku's methodology for building cloud-native applications.

Read on 12factor.net →

Quick Reference: The 12 Factors

# Factor You're doing it right if...
1 Preview Everything A domain expert can click a link and see exactly what will ship
2 Shared Validation A check that fails in CI would have failed locally too
3 Democratize PRs Your product owner shipped a change last week without asking an engineer
4 Async Agents Your engineer has multiple agents running right now
5 Codified Standards An agent's first attempt matches your design system
6 Shared Agent Context A new team member's agent behaves identically to a veteran's
7 Agents in Every Conversation An idea from standup this morning is in PR review this afternoon
8 Unified Dev Environment You've never said "the agent couldn't access that"
9 Show Don't Tell Your last three product decisions were made after seeing a prototype
10 Data Accessible An agent can answer questions without custom integration work
11 Small Pods You can name every person on your team without pausing
12 Complexity-Based Process A typo fix hit production in 10 minutes with no human approval

Ready to Start?

Begin with Factor 1: Preview Everything. It's the foundation that makes everything else possible.

Start with Factor 1 →