Caldera Labs

Fairlead - AI-Powered Requirements Aggregation

Engineering TeamVersion 0.1.0In Development
AIRequirements ManagementEvent Sourcing.NETMCP

Overview

The Fairlead Platform revolutionizes how organizations track, manage, and evolve project requirements. Unlike traditional task management tools, this platform focuses specifically on requirements lifecycle management with built-in temporal tracking, proposal workflows, and AI-powered interfaces.

At its core, Fairlead listens to external communication channels—emails, Slack messages, stakeholder conversations—and automatically proposes requirement changes based on what it hears. Every change is auditable, every decision is tracked, and the system maintains a complete history of how requirements evolved over time.

The Problem

  • • Requirements lost in email threads and scattered documents
  • • No clear audit trail of requirement evolution
  • • Manual requirement extraction from stakeholder conversations
  • • Difficulty tracking requirement changes and business impact
  • • Lack of standardized workflows for requirement approval

Key Features

Fairlead brings together modern software architecture patterns with AI capabilities to create a requirements management system that actually works with how teams communicate.

Auditable Requirements Management

Complete event-sourced audit trail for all requirement changes. Every modification, every approval, every rejection is permanently recorded. You can answer questions like "Who requested this feature?" and "Why did we change that requirement?" with confidence.

Temporal Queries

View requirements state at any point in time. See what your backlog looked like three months ago, or track how a specific requirement evolved from initial concept to final implementation. Perfect for retrospectives and compliance reporting.

Proposal Workflows

Structured approval process for requirement changes. AI proposes changes based on communication channels, stakeholders review and approve, and the system maintains the complete decision history. No more requirements appearing or disappearing without explanation.

AI Integration

Built-in Model Context Protocol (MCP) server enables AI tools to interact with your requirements system. Perform bulk operations, generate reports, categorize requirements, and create new requirements using natural language.

Multi-tenant Architecture

Organization and project-based isolation ensures your data stays separate and secure. Perfect for consultancies managing multiple clients or enterprises managing multiple product lines.

Technical Architecture

Fairlead is built on modern .NET with architectural patterns designed for auditability, scalability, and maintainability.

Core Patterns

Event Sourcing

Complete audit trail with temporal queries. Every state change is stored as an event, enabling perfect reconstruction of historical states and full compliance reporting.

CQRS

Separate read/write models for optimal performance. Write models enforce business rules, read models are optimized for query patterns.

Domain-Driven Design

Rich domain models with business logic encapsulation. The code speaks the language of requirements management, making it maintainable and understandable.

Vertical Slice Architecture

Feature-based organization keeps related code together. Adding new requirement operations is straightforward and doesn't create cross-cutting concerns.

Technology Stack

Framework & LanguageC# .NET 9
Event StoreMarten (PostgreSQL)
API FrameworkASP.NET Core with Carter
DatabasePostgreSQL 15+
TestingxUnit, FluentAssertions

AI Integration

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration transforms how teams interact with their requirements. Instead of clicking through UIs, teams can use natural language to perform complex operations.

MCP Capabilities

Project Analysis

Generate comprehensive project reports and requirement summaries with a single command.

Bulk Operations

Process multiple requirement proposals simultaneously, saving hours of manual work.

Smart Categorization

Automatically categorize and tag requirements based on content and context.

Natural Language Creation

Create requirements by describing them conversationally rather than filling out forms.

Communication Channel Monitoring

The system monitors communication channels for requirement changes and automatically creates proposals. When a stakeholder says "We need to add authentication to the admin panel" in Slack, Fairlead:

  • ✓ Detects the requirement change
  • ✓ Extracts the core requirement details
  • ✓ Creates a proposal with context and attribution
  • ✓ Routes to appropriate approvers
  • ✓ Updates the requirement set upon approval

Current Status & Roadmap

Fairlead is currently in active development with core functionality implemented and communication channel integrations in progress.

Completed

  • ✓ Event-sourced domain models for requirements
  • ✓ Proposal workflow system
  • ✓ Multi-tenant architecture with organizations and projects
  • ✓ RESTful API with Carter
  • ✓ Temporal query support
  • ✓ MCP server foundation
  • ✓ PostgreSQL event store with Marten
  • ✓ Comprehensive test suite with architecture tests

In Progress & Planned

Current
Communication channel integrations (Slack, email) for automatic requirement extraction and proposal generation.
Q4 2025
Web UI for requirement visualization and approval workflows. Enhanced MCP capabilities for complex requirement operations.
Q1 2026
Real-time collaboration features, requirement dependency tracking, and impact analysis tools.
Future
Integration with project management tools, automated requirement testing validation, and advanced analytics.