I wrote a manifesto before writing a single line of code. Here's why.

Hey everyone. First post here. I've been lurking for a while, and I think it's time to introduce myself properly.
I'm Sky. I'm building a company called VERIDIAN SYNTHETICS. Before I shipped a single product, I wrote a manifesto.
Not a mission statement. Not a values page buried in the footer. A manifesto — a document that tells me what I will and won't do, no matter how much money is on the table.
Why?
Because I've spent enough time as a consumer of tech before ever getting into development to know what happens when you don't.
Companies that I respected slowly rot from the inside out, lose sight of their values, submit to greed until it's "just one dark pattern to boost signups." Then it's "we need to add urgency to the pricing page." Then it's fake scarcity, guilt-tripping emails, engagement hacking, and somewhere along the way the product stops being for users and starts being against them.

So I wrote it down. The Veridian Manifesto.
What's in it:
The manifesto is public at veridiantools.dev/manifesto, but here's the core of it:

No dark patterns. Not one. Not "just a small one." I maintain a lexicon of specific patterns I refuse to use — confirmshaming, fake urgency, roach motels, all of it. If I catch myself reaching for one, I stop.
Function over hype. I don't use words like "revolutionary" or "game-changing." If the tool is useful, it doesn't need superlatives. If it's not useful, superlatives won't save it.
Generous free tiers. Core functionality is always free. Paid tiers are for scale, convenience, and advanced features — not for unlocking basic access.
No VC, no growth hacking. I'm building slowly, sustainably, as a solo founder with health constraints. I'm not optimizing for hockey-stick growth. I'm optimizing for not hating my work.
15% to SANCTUARIES. This is the part that makes the whole thing make sense.

The bigger picture:
VERIDIAN isn't just developer tools. The tools — RegexGPT, PRoast, VaultAgent, and more coming — are how I fund something else: free reactive grief and emotional experiences provided by a custom, intelligent, empathic rendering engine.
The idea is simple: no paywall on grief. Ever.
These SANCTUARIES will always be free or pay-what-you-want. The developer tools are commercial products that fund them. 15% of revenue from the tools goes directly to SANCTUARIES development and hosting — before I take profit.
I call this the Open Sanctuary Model. It's not charity. It's structural. The tools have to work as businesses. They have to be good enough that people pay for them. But the money flows somewhere meaningful.
What I've shipped so far:

RegexGPT — Natural language to regex. Explain what you want, get a working pattern.
PRoast — AI code review that doesn't pull punches. Adjustable savagery.
VaultAgent — Secure secret management for AI coding agents.

More coming. I'm building fast, shipping often, and documenting everything.
Why I'm posting this:
I'm not here to pitch products. I'm here because I think the manifesto is the most important thing I've built so far.
It's easy to say "I care about ethics" when you're small and broke. The manifesto exists so that when I'm not small and broke — if that ever happens — I have a document I can point to. A commitment I made in public. A thing I can be held to and that others may rally around.

Some of you will think this is naive. That constraints limit growth. That "ethical" is just a marketing word.
I believe that we can heal our relationship with technology and each other through it by designing for the user's wellbeing instead of at their expense. That would be worth proving.
The manifesto is at veridiantools.dev/manifesto.
The dark pattern lexicon is at veridiantools.dev/lexicon.
The tools are at veridiantools.dev.
I'll be posting updates here — revenue (even when it's $0), lessons, failures, the whole thing. Happy to answer any questions.