Decisions get made in conversation, then quietly disappear.

On any design or build project, the decisions that matter most are made out loud — on a site visit, over a call, in a message thread. Someone remembers the brass was approved. Someone else remembers a different brass. Months later, with the invoice in dispute, neither can prove it.

Arc is a system of record for those decisions. Every one is captured with its provenance — the exact words, from the actual conversation, at a known moment — confirmed by both sides, and versioned when it changes. Not a project management tool, not a chat app. A record you can stand behind.

Why it works this way

Three principles shape everything, and they're worth stating because they explain the things Arc deliberately doesn't do.

• Nothing is edited away. The record is append-only. A change of mind becomes a new decision that supersedes the old one, and both remain visible. You can always see what was agreed and when it changed.
• No decision without provenance. Every entry carries the verbatim passage it came from. If it can't be quoted, it isn't recorded — which is why Arc under-claims rather than guessing.
• Both sides confirm. A decision isn't agreed because you wrote it down. It's agreed because your client saw it, in plain language, and said yes — or amended it in their own words.

Who makes it

Arc is built by Edgewise Lab, a small studio in London. It started from a straightforward frustration: the professional–client relationship generates a stream of consequential agreements, and the tools available treated them as chat messages or as rows in a spreadsheet, never as a record with provenance.

It's deliberately built on portable foundations — standard Postgres, standard object storage, standard email. Your record isn't hostage to us.

What Arc is not

It doesn't produce construction documents, and its visuals are disposable concepts, never drawings to build from — that work, and its liability, stays with you. It isn't a file repository either: material enters Arc only attached to a decision it evidences.

Questions, or want to tell us what your practice actually needs? Get in touch — a person reads every message.