About Us

Let's be honest: tech has a problem

Computers and software have evolved into powerful tools that have revolutionized how we work. Every day, we hear of a new app or agent claiming improved efficiency or collaboration. But, we’re still drowning in a sea of tabs and tools, leaving us burnt-out, unhappy and unproductive.

We struggle to find what we need, constantly switching between windows, hunting for the path of least resistance just to finish a single task — it feels like we’re swimming against the current.

AI will save us... right?

However, even our brilliant AI co-pilots are problematic: AI is astoundingly capable, but the process of prompting and coordinating these tools across fragmented workplace apps is its own special new form of busywork hell.

Copy, paste, search, re-prompt - an endless muddle of routine cognitive labor just to get AI on the same page as our work. 

There must be a better way.

We're looking far beyond the traditional notion of productivity and the incremental gains achieved by simply creating another app or AI co-pilot that optimizes part of your workflow. 

Reframe isn’t just another app, operating system or software product. It’s changing the paradigm of how we work with computers — and with each other.

It’s the first iteration of an Organized Work Environment that adapts the computer to you — not you to the computer. It removes the stress of constant context-switching and app shuffling by bringing together everything you need: apps, files, chats — into coherent Streams of work.

No more copy-and-paste. No more app switching. No more “Where was I?”.

Protocol First

In 2025, Reframe shifted from a product-first model to a protocol-first strategy. Our mission is not to own the environment where collaboration happens — it is to define and steward the open protocol that makes genuine human-AI collaboration possible.

We follow the playbook of the early web:

open standard → reference implementation → ecosystem → applications.

1. Protocol: Formalize ASCP and publish open, standard-track specifications

2. Reference Implementation: Ship the free, open-source ASCP stack

3. Application: Build example clients (AI Desktop, Chrome extension) to show what the Cortex Layer unlocks

4. Ecosystem: Support integrators, frameworks, researchers, and agent platforms adopting ASCP

5. Long Term: The full Organized Work Environment (OWE), made possible through the protocol

Our long-term vision — the OWE — remains unchanged. The path to get there now starts with open protocol infrastructure.

The Cortex Layer

To realize the long-term vision of the Organized Work Environment (OWE), Reframe is first building the missing substrate that modern computing and AI both lack: a persistent, structured layer of shared context.

The Cortex Layer provides durable memory across tools, agents, and time. It transforms scattered messages, documents, and prompts into structured, addressable context that humans and AI can both understand and contribute to. This layer ensures continuity: decisions, goals, and meaning no longer disappear when apps change, models reset, or conversations end.

It is the foundation on which the OWE — a truly integrated, context-aware computing environment — can be built.

ASCP: The Protocol Behind the Cortex Layer

The Cortex Layer is implemented through the Agent Shared Cognition Protocol (ASCP) — an open, IETF-aligned protocol for expressing and distributing shared context.

ASCP provides:

• Immutable, addressable cognitive atoms (Artipoints) that capture decisions, references, and meaning.

• A formal coordination grammar that makes context explicit, structured, and evolvable.

• Encrypted channels and append-only logs that preserve privacy and ensure trust.

• Local-first + sync architecture that keeps context user-owned and resilient.

• A neutral, interoperable substrate that tools, agents, and applications can build on.

ASCP is not designed as a proprietary memory API. It is a protocol intended to become a widely adopted standard — much like HTTP, Git, or DNS — enabling durable shared cognition across the computing ecosystem.

Reference Implementation

To accelerate adoption and ensure clarity, Reframe is developing a free, open-source reference implementation of ASCP.

This implementation demonstrates:

• How Artipoints, Streams, Spaces, and Channels work in practice

• How local-first sync and cryptographic scoping operate

• How human- and agent-facing clients interact with the context graph

• How the protocol can be embedded into tools, agents, or operating environments

It serves as both a demonstration tool and a robust platform for integrators.

Ecosystem & Adoption

The Cortex Layer only works if it becomes part of the fabric of computing, not a feature of a single product. That’s why ASCP is being developed as an open, international standard—a protocol that anyone can implement, extend, or build on.

Modern AI systems suffer from the same fragmentation that has plagued the rest of computing: every tool, app, and model holds its own isolated memory. This creates a world where context can’t flow, collaboration can’t compound, and agency is slowly ceded to platforms. Fixing this doesn’t mean building a bigger model or a better app. It requires shared infrastructure.

ASCP is designed to be that infrastructure. It is:

• Open and vendor-neutral

  No company should own the world’s collaborative memory. ASCP is structured like other public protocols—HTTP, DNS, Git—so the ecosystem can remain interoperable, durable, and resistant to capture.

• FOSS-powered and community-driven

  The reference implementation is fully open source. Builders, researchers, and integrators can audit it, extend it, fork it, or embed it in their own tools. ASCP grows through real adoption, not locked-down APIs.

• Internationally governable

  The protocol is being written toward IETF-style standardization so multiple stakeholders—developers, researchers, institutions, companies—can steward its evolution. Long-term durability requires global oversight, not reliance on a single platform.

• Ecosystem-first rather than product-first

  Reframe’s implementations (like the AI Desktop) are examples meant to inspire and accelerate the community, not to enclose it. Our goal is a world where many clients, agents, models, and tools speak ASCP natively.

• A foundation for shared cognition across tools and agents

  The real opportunity isn’t a better chat interface; it’s enabling durable collaboration across human teams, autonomous agents, and diverse applications—without forcing everything into one ecosystem.

Our long-term objective is simple:

ASCP becomes the protocol layer that the next generation of tools, agents, and operating environments rely on for shared context.

To get there, we’re working with:

• agent framework developers

• research groups

• open-source communities

• early integrators

• and protocol-minded platform teams

who see that the future of AI cannot be a collection of walled gardens.

By grounding the Cortex Layer in an open protocol, we enable a computing world where context moves freely, agency stays with the user, and collaboration compounds over time—regardless of which model, tool, or platform you choose.