Adab is an Arabic word that roughly means knowing what a situation asks of you. Not politeness, something closer to attentiveness. The right action depends on who's there, what's at stake, what the moment actually needs.
We build tools that try to practice this. Software that reads the room before it speaks. AI that cares about the difference between what it can do and what it should.
Projects
A protocol for honest AI
When AI builds a model of who you are, you should be able to see it, correct it, and take it with you. Sourced makes that model visible so the system is honest about what it thinks it knows.
VisitAI that requires you
Most AI writes for you. Cursive keeps you in the process. Seven thinking tools that question, challenge, and reframe your work, but never take the pen. A bicycle for the mind, not a self-driving car.
VisitA bilingual reader
Hear a paragraph in Arabic, then rewind and hear it in English. Back and forth until the meaning lands. Transliterations are pronounced the way they're meant to sound, not anglicized.
Philosophy
In Arabic literary tradition, adab meant something like the cultivation of good conduct, knowing how to act well in a given situation. In Sufi thought the idea deepened: adab became the practice of presence. Reading a room before you speak into it. Not etiquette. Awareness.
Most software doesn't do this. It treats every person the same, every context the same, every interaction as a chance to be maximally helpful. But the right response actually depends on the relationship: who's asking, what they need, what power dynamics are in play. We think that's worth building for.
Every interaction has a context that shapes what the right response is
What to share and what to hold back depends on the relationship, not a global setting
The goal isn’t to be maximally capable, it’s to be appropriate to the moment