Bothy
Log inOpen the door
The bothy code

Four rules, and the software that keeps them.

A bothy works because everyone who uses one follows the same four unwritten rules. They turned out to be a decent specification for software.

01The door is unlockedNo seat to provision, no approval to add someone. If they are working with you, they are in.
02Leave it betterThe daily log, the notes on a ticket, the runbook someone wrote at 11pm. Stocked for whoever comes next.
03Take only what you needTurn on the pieces your team uses and switch the rest off. A bothy that only tracks time and invoices shows nothing else.
04Somebody keeps the roof onThirty dollars a month in upkeep. Everyone who comes in under it is free.

A bothy is an unlocked shelter in the hills.

No booking, no front desk, no one charging you. You walk in, you work, you leave it better than you found it. The door is open to whoever's in the crew that day.

That's the whole idea, applied to software. Not luxury — the essentials, always there and always open.

Shenavall Bothy at sunset in the Scottish Highlands, a low stone shelter under the hills
Shenavall Bothy, Scottish Highlands. Photograph by James Eades on Unsplash.

Stocked for whoever comes next

You arrive at a bothy and there is firewood by the stove, candles on the shelf and a book by the door, because the last person left them. Nobody was asked to. It is just how the place works.

Bothy is built the same way. The daily log, the notes on a ticket, the runbook someone wrote once — a crew spread across time zones runs on what the last person left behind.

The bothy book
A daily log channel by the door. What you did, what is next, what is blocked — two lines, not a meeting.
Firewood by the stove
Tickets carry their own description and notes, so picking up someone else’s work does not start with a call.
Write it down once
If you explain something twice, it belongs in Docs. That is what a new person reads instead of asking.
The door stays open
Invites are one click and cost nothing. Nobody waits on a seat being provisioned to start working.

The door is open.

Thirty days free for a team, free forever for one person. If it does not replace at least three things you pay for, do not keep it.

Start free for 30 daysI am one person