Resources
Resources for planning and building AI systems
Guides, comparisons, reference architectures, templates and a glossary, written from the systems we build and run. Filter by type, service or industry. Everything is free to read, every outside fact carries the date we checked it, and anything not yet reviewed or published says so.
Featured guide
Awaiting founder reviewHow to build a RAG chatbot
Written from the assistant running on this site: how content is ingested and versioned, how retrieval finds the right passage, when the assistant declines to answer and how a conversation reaches a person.
- Versioned ingestion
- Hybrid retrieval
- Confidence gate
- Cited answers and handover
The resource library
Browse the library
- Awaiting founder review: published for reading, kept out of search engines until the founder has reviewed it.
Showing 21 of 21
Everything in the library, shelved by type. Items still being written are listed so you can see what is coming, but they are not links yet.
Guides
All guides- GuideAwaiting founder review
How to build a RAG chatbot
How an assistant that answers from your content is put together, from ingestion to cited answers and handover.AI chatbots · E-commerce · SaaS & startups - GuideAwaiting founder review
Reliable workflow automation
Designing automations for the day something fails: retries, duplicate protection, dead letters and alerts.Workflow automation · E-commerce - GuideAwaiting founder review
AI agent design and guardrails
Patterns from a single model call up to tool-using agents, the guardrails each needs, and when not to use one.AI agents · SaaS & startups - GuideAwaiting founder review
Voice agent buyer’s guide
What a call minute costs line by line, where the delay in a reply comes from and what to ask a voice vendor.AI voice agents · Healthcare · Real estate · Hospitality - GuideAwaiting founder review
AI video production pipeline
Rights, likeness consent and AI disclosure for marketing video, taken step by step.AI video · Real estate · E-commerce - GuideAwaiting founder review
Evaluating AI systems
Building a first test set, choosing what to measure and holding releases until the results pass.Custom AI · AI chatbots · Healthcare - GuideAwaiting founder review
Scoping your first AI project
The variables that move price and timeline, and a rubric for picking the first use case.Custom AI · SaaS & startups
Comparisons
All comparisons- ComparisonAwaiting founder review
RAG vs fine-tuning
Whether the model should look your facts up or learn a behaviour from examples.Custom AI · AI chatbots · Healthcare - ComparisonAwaiting founder review
Build vs buy an AI chatbot
A helpdesk add-on, a chatbot product or a build on your own accounts.AI chatbots · E-commerce · SaaS & startups - ComparisonAwaiting founder review
Chatbot vs AI agent vs automation
Answer, follow fixed steps or choose the next one: which kind of system fits the task.AI agents · Workflow automation · AI chatbots - ComparisonAwaiting founder review
n8n vs Make vs Zapier vs custom code
What each platform bills for, where it runs and what its licence allows.Workflow automation · Healthcare · E-commerce - ComparisonAwaiting founder review
Agency vs in-house vs freelancer
Team, freelancer, agency or studio, rated on ownership, review depth and key-person risk.Custom AI
Architectures
All reference architectures- Reference architecture
RAG support chatbot
Sources, index, retriever, model, citations and handover, drawn as one path.AI chatbots · E-commerce · SaaS & startups - Reference architecture
WhatsApp business bot
Webhooks, the customer-service window, routing, approved templates and the CRM write-back.AI chatbots · E-commerce · Real estate · Hospitality - Reference architecture
Inbound voice agent
Telephony, speech recognition, the model, speech synthesis and the branch that transfers to a person.AI voice agents · Healthcare · Hospitality - Reference architecture
Event-driven automation
Webhook intake, a queue, idempotent workers, a dead-letter store and replay.Workflow automation · E-commerce
Templates
Glossary
Tools and reading
- Tool or reading
Free AI tools
An automation plan generator and an ROI calculator that shows every assumption next to its number.Workflow automation - Tool or reading
Blog
Articles on AI automation; the index lists only posts that have passed our review. - Tool or reading
MindLoop newsletter
New guides, comparisons and templates by email when they are published.
Long-form guides, one per service area, written from systems we build and run, each with a section on when not to build at all.
Decision matrices for the build choices that come up early, with criteria you weight yourself and vendor facts dated from the vendors’ own pages.
Reference designs for the systems we build most, drawn to one diagram standard: components, data flow, failure modes and cost drivers.
Working documents to download and fill in, from a use-case scoring sheet to an automation run-book and a voice call script. Generic templates, never client documents.
Plain definitions of the terms used across this site, each linked to the page where the idea is put to work.
Free planners and calculators that show every assumption, the reviewed blog and the MindLoop newsletter.
Method
How this library is written
The library is written the way we would want to read it as buyers: from working systems, with the method visible and the gaps admitted.
- Written from systems we build and run. Where a real configuration exists, such as the assistant on this site, the guide quotes it.
- Outside facts are cited from the publisher’s own page with the date we read it. Regulations, vendor limits and billing rules change, so the date matters.
- Guides and comparisons are reviewed by the founder before search engines are invited to index them, and each byline says whether that has happened.
- Demos carry a Sample data label and worked examples a Concept build label. Nothing here describes a client project.
- An updated date changes only when the content does, so a date is a real signal of freshness.
Every guide and comparison is written to be useful whoever builds your system: your own team, another vendor or us.
Newsletter
Hear when something new is published
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Why are some resources marked Awaiting founder review?
They are finished and published for reading, but the founder has not reviewed them yet. Until he does, search engines are asked not to index them. The label comes off, and the review date appears in the byline, once the review is done.
Are these resources free to use?
Yes. Guides, comparisons and architectures are free to read with no sign-up, and templates are free to download and adapt for your own projects. If you quote a guide, a link back to it is appreciated.
Can we use these guides with another vendor or our own team?
That is the intent. The checklists, discovery questions and evaluation advice apply whoever builds the system, and several pages say plainly when hiring us would be the wrong choice.
Where should we start if this is our first AI project?
Start with the comparison of chatbots, AI agents and automation to name the kind of system you need, then read the guide for that service area. If you would rather talk it through, the scoping call is free.
Do any of these resources describe real client projects?
No. They are written from our own systems, such as the assistant on this site, and from reference designs. Worked examples are labelled Concept build and demo data is labelled Sample data.
How do we report a mistake or an outdated fact?
Send it through the contact page with the page and the line in question. We check it against the source, correct the page if needed and change its updated date so the fix is visible.
Next step
Have a workflow in mind? Let’s scope it together.
Book a free 30-minute strategy call. Bring one process you want to automate and we will talk through scope, integrations and a sensible first step.
Free 30-minute call · no commitment