Operational Memory
How can software preserve the context, decisions, and history behind ongoing work?
Independent research laboratory
Computers should understand work.
Make Directory Labs studies how software can develop an accurate, evolving understanding of complex human activity—and use that understanding to reduce friction, preserve context, and improve decisions.
Research agenda
We investigate the structures beneath everyday work: events, decisions, artifacts, relationships, responsibility, memory, and change.
Human–AI Collaboration
How should people and intelligent systems share context, authority, and accountability?
Computational Work Models
Can computers learn how work actually happens without forcing it into rigid software first?
Most software stores the outputs of work. We are interested in whether software can understand the work itself.
Projects as experiments
Each project tests a narrower hypothesis within the broader research program. Products are evidence, not the mission itself.
Blackboard
An MCP-native operational context interface for business systems.
Continuity
A local-first system for understanding and preserving a person’s digital life over time.
TradeFlow
A disciplined research environment for proposing, testing, and rejecting quantitative strategies.