The problem set
The north Puget Sound rezoned faster than its counters could keep up. 2025 middle-housing rules and light-rail upzones rewrote what land is worth from Shoreline to Lynnwood — and the records started moving faster than the people who depend on them.
- The record is scattered. Codes at the city, packets at the district, permits in the archive, awards at the state — separate governments, none obligated to tell you anything.
- Nobody reads until it costs. The gap surfaces mid-escrow, in month three of a stall, at the availability-certificate desk — always at the worst moment, on the worst terms.
- The desks thinned as the stakes rose. Review queues stretched while land values jumped. The people the system assumes will catch things aren't there to catch them.
AGT-01 · Permit navigator · for the infill builder
Greenlight
From redline to greenlight.
The fourplex has been "in review" since spring, burning ≈ $15,600 a month in loan, taxes, and lost rent — and the counter can't say what's wrong, because the counter is three people down and eleven weeks deep. The project isn't bad; the first submittal was. The agent reads four cities' codes daily, finds the gaps before the city does, and tracks all six stages.
3+ months resubmitting blind→days, stage-tracked
AGT-02 · Canopy code agent · for the view homeowner
Overstory.
The tree service that reads the code.
The fir ate the Sound view half the home's value rides on — and Edmonds is amending its tree code again: landmark threshold down to 24″, one removal a year. Cut it like the neighbor did in 2023 and the fine lands on the owner, not the crew. The agent prices every cut against the code in force that day, and files the permit.
3 visits · a week · mystery price→photos in, same day
AGT-03 · Records reconciler · for the listing agent
Rectify.
Unpermitted work, made right.
Day 21 of escrow: the buyer's inspector finds the finished basement the city never heard about, and suddenly $10K–$23K of exposure is leverage against the seller's price. Whoever finds the gap first owns the negotiation. The agent diffs the permit archive against the house as built — before listing, on the seller's terms.
2–3 wks, found mid-escrow→48 hrs, pre-list
AGT-04 · District monitor · for the land buyer
Tapline_
A parcel can be zoned, financed, and still unbuildable.
The parcel is under contract; nobody checked the sewer district behind it — a separate government under RCW Title 57 with no obligation to announce anything. When a district quietly stops issuing availability certificates, no notice goes out. The agent reads eight purveyors' board packets every cycle and traces each constraint to the parcels it touches.
weeks of calls — or never→flagged before closing
AGT-05 · Retainage indexer · for the public-works contractor
Retained.
Find the money the state is holding.
The city job finished in February; it's August and the state still holds the five percent — an Affidavit of Wages Paid nobody assigned sits unfiled. Statewide that's ≈ $2.07M frozen behind paperwork office managers were never taught. The agent indexes every small-works award in Washington, matches stuck jobs by name, and files the closeout.
months of "we'll get to it"→filed in days, $500 flat
Where this goes
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Every record gets a reader.
Codes, dockets, board packets, award rosters — documents governments must publish and almost no one reads. Continuous readers replace quarterly consultants, one record at a time.
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The expensive part was never judgment.
It was the reading — hours at counters, weeks of requests, afternoons nobody billed for. When reading becomes continuous and nearly free, workflows collapse from weeks to hours and flat fees replace retainers.
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The suite compounds.
Five agents share one region's paper. A code amendment one agent catches reprices a quote for another and re-scores a parcel for a third. Each record added makes every agent sharper.
House rule — every agent runs with a human in the loop. The agent reads and flags; a person makes the call.
Your pain point isn't listed? It probably has a record too.
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