What 8090 does
8090 describes itself as the AI-native software factory for regulated enterprises. Teams write Requirements documents in plain English, then Blueprints for each component, and the Software Factory uses AI agents to turn those documents into production code with a full audit trail and a living knowledge graph. 8090 Enterprise goes further: applications designed, built, hosted and maintained by 8090. Founded in 2024 by Chamath Palihapitiya, the company raised a $135M Series A led by Salesforce in June 2026 and lists CMS, BISSELL and EY among its customers.
What Nool does
Nool is an agentic change-control system you install on repositories you already have. Your engineers keep using Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or internal agents. Nool adds the control plane: scope leases so parallel agents do not collide, semantic blast-radius analysis before a change is accepted, deterministic policy gates that can block insecure or out-of-bounds changes, a cross-vendor reviewer quorum, and a signed ledger that records the intent and evidence behind every change.
Where they differ
Who holds the pen. 8090 is a managed factory: the intent goes in as documents and 8090's platform and agents produce the system, which suits organisations that want an outcome delivered. Nool assumes your team is already producing code with agents and needs that work to stay inside architectural and compliance boundaries. It is the difference between outsourcing the build and governing your own build.
Regulated teams
Both target auditability. 8090 provides it as a property of its factory. Nool provides it as a property of your repository: every solidified change carries who asked for it, what it touched, which gates it passed and which reviewer approved it, replayable later with nool debug. The COBOL-to-Java case study shows this on a CICS estate, where each migrated bucket landed with its blast radius, gate results and reviewer verdicts attached, and the same evidence is what an auditor reads later without a separate reporting exercise.
When to choose which
Choose 8090 when the outcome you want is a delivered system and you would rather a vendor's factory and agents build, host and maintain it from requirements you write in plain English. That model fits organisations without an engineering team to run agents themselves. Choose Nool when you already have engineers using Claude Code, Codex or Cursor on repositories you own, and the problem is keeping that work inside architectural and compliance boundaries with an audit trail your security team can read. The two are not exclusive: a factory can build a new system while Nool governs everything your own teams touch, including changes to the factory's output once it lands in your Git.
8090 Software Factory vs Nool, side by side
| Criterion | 8090 Software Factory | Nool |
|---|---|---|
| Where the code is built | Inside 8090's platform, with 8090's agents | In your repositories, with the agents you already run |
| Starting point | Requirements and Blueprint documents | An announced intent and a leased scope per change |
| Audit trail | Full audit trail and knowledge graph per project | Signed knot ledger with causal attribution and evidence |
| Who operates it | 8090 builds, hosts and maintains (8090 Enterprise) | Your engineers, from the CLI, MCP server and CI |
| Legacy modernisation | Core use case | Governed migration with blast radius; COBOL to Java case study |
| Multi-agent coordination | Managed inside the factory | Leases, semantic conflict detection, reviewer quorum |
| Time to first value | Enterprise engagement | Install and govern an existing repo in minutes |
Frequently asked questions
- Is Nool a software factory?
- No. Nool does not build applications for you. It governs the agents and engineers who build them, on repositories you control.
- Can Nool govern code that comes out of a factory or any other agent platform?
- Yes, as long as the code lands in a Git repository. Nool gates the change at proposal time regardless of which agent wrote it.
- Which is right for a regulated team?
- If you want a vendor to deliver and run the system, 8090's model fits. If you have an engineering team using coding agents and need every change to stay inside policy with a replayable audit trail, Nool fits. Some organisations will use a factory for new builds and Nool for everything their own teams touch.
- Does Nool integrate with 8090?
- There is no integration and none is needed. Nool governs changes to a Git repository at proposal time regardless of who or what wrote the code, so output from any factory or agent platform is gated the same way once your team works on it.