[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":103},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhy-i-started-rm-rf-software":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":7,"date":93,"description":94,"extension":95,"meta":96,"navigation":97,"path":98,"seo":99,"seoTitle":100,"stem":101,"__hash__":102},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fwhy-i-started-rm-rf-software.md","Why I started rm-rf software","David O'Connor",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":85},"minimark",[10,14,17,20,25,28,31,35,38,41,44,48,69,72,75,79,82],[11,12,13],"p",{},"For years my day job was building online shops, and most of that time went on fighting the platforms. They were complicated, the sites were slow, and adding a feature a shop actually needed usually meant another plugin and another monthly fee. The shop owners paid for all of it.",[11,15,16],{},"So about five years ago I started building my own platform. It had to be fast and easy to customise, with everything a shop needs included at one reasonable price.",[11,18,19],{},"Then I started a new job and, not long after that, I lost my father and, for a long time, the platform sat half-finished.",[21,22,24],"h2",{"id":23},"a-van-and-a-gap-in-the-market","A van and a gap in the market",[11,26,27],{},"I had a second project too. I had a van for a motorhome conversion project, which cost me an arm and a leg to get some repairs done. I decided to try and use it for removals work on the side, so I built myself some software to run that business venture. Removals is a crowded market, though, and it ended up on the shelf as well.",[11,29,30],{},"The software was the part I couldn't let go of. When I'd looked for tools to run the business, I couldn't find one that handled the whole job: quotes, bookings, planning the vans, the drivers on the day and the invoices afterwards. I wanted to build one that did.",[21,32,34],{"id":33},"the-board-that-tipped-the-scales","The board that tipped the scales",[11,36,37],{},"I had the idea of using AI to help me finish both projects, and I built a simple kanban board to keep track of the work.",[11,39,40],{},"The real change came when I gave the board an MCP server, so AI agents could pick up tickets and update them on their own. Almost at once I was getting through far more work than I ever could alone. Quality was the critical issue, because agents left to themselves cut corners. So I created a company handbook, which holds company standards, coding conventions, security and quality rules and guardrails, and every agent reads it at the start of every session.",[11,42,43],{},"With those guardrails in place the agents turn out work I'm happy to put my name to, at breakneck speed. That's how rm-rf software ltd began, in September 2026.",[21,45,47],{"id":46},"what-were-building","What we're building",[11,49,50,51,68],{},"The first two products come straight from that story. DoCommerce is the shop platform I started five years ago, and it's the next one we'll launch. DoRoutes is the removals software, and it works for delivery and waste firms too. It goes on sale on 28 October at ",[52,53,59,60],"a",{"href":54,"rel":55,"target":58},"https:\u002F\u002Fdoroutes.com",[56,57],"noopener","noreferrer","_blank","doroutes.com",[61,62,63],"span",{},[61,64,67],{"className":65},[66],"sr-only"," (opens in a new tab)",".",[11,70,71],{},"The kanban board turned into a product of its own, DoWorkflows, which is still taking shape.",[11,73,74],{},"There's more in the pipeline. We have access to the Auto Trader Connect API, and once DoRoutes is on sale we start building on it. My partner is qualified in environmental management and compliance, so our auditing software, DoAudits, is on the way, and waste management is on the ideas board after that.",[21,76,78],{"id":77},"a-tiny-team-run-like-a-big-one","A tiny team, run like a big one",[11,80,81],{},"We work the way a much larger company would. Every piece of work starts as a ticket on the board and every change is tested before it ships, but the team is tiny. The AI agents take on the routine, recurring jobs that would otherwise fill our days.",[11,83,84],{},"That leaves us the part we enjoy most: designing new products and taking them all the way to market.",{"title":86,"searchDepth":87,"depth":87,"links":88},"",2,[89,90,91,92],{"id":23,"depth":87,"text":24},{"id":33,"depth":87,"text":34},{"id":46,"depth":87,"text":47},{"id":77,"depth":87,"text":78},"2026-10-30","How a five-year-old side project and a homemade kanban board with AI agents on it became rm-rf software, and what we're building next.","md",{},true,"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhy-i-started-rm-rf-software",{"title":5,"description":94},null,"blog\u002Fwhy-i-started-rm-rf-software","3audhE9FTnaFhNwcYlyk1HzYCJjlK4HJnLpwWZ2jvlc",1793142383582]