Manifesto
Formray
Why we build, how we think, and what we believe technology should be.
Formray is a creative technology company. We build open-source software that respects privacy, works anywhere, and is designed to last. Not because those are selling points — but because they are principles.
We work across disciplines — software, AI, audio, video, creative technology — because the best solutions come from understanding more than one field. Every product, every service, every line of code gets the same attention.
This is what we believe.
Where we come from
Formray started inside Skeldon — a cooperative enterprise based in Voghera, Italy, specializing in entertainment and technical production. Audio engineering, live events, system design. Places where things must work the first time, every time.
We took that discipline and applied it to open-source software. Build tools that are robust enough for production, transparent enough for trust, and free enough for anyone to use.
Building for the community
Build first, monetize later. We believe that good software earns trust before it earns revenue. Our products are open-source at their core because transparency is not optional — it is foundational.
Privacy is not a selling point. It is a design constraint. We build systems that work locally, that keep data where it belongs, and that never require you to trust a third party with what is yours.
The community is not a market segment. It is the reason the work exists.
Products that don't exist yet
We don't build products for the sake of building. We build because something is missing — a tool, a system, a way of thinking about a problem that doesn't exist yet.
DARC exists because no one had built a truly air-gapped, AI-enabled whistleblowing platform. AEGIS exists because venue audio compliance was stuck in the power-cut era. PRISM exists because AI text detection should not require uploading your writing to a cloud.
We look for the gap. Then we build for it.
Craft over speed
We take our time. Fewer products, more care. Software built to last, not to ship fast. When something leaves our hands, it is ready.
Quality from the start means fewer bugs, fewer rewrites, fewer apologetic patch notes. It means documentation that is written before launch, architecture that anticipates growth, and interfaces that are a pleasure to use.
AI as creative partner
We use AI as an extension of thinking, not a replacement for it. AI helps us build faster, write clearer code, explore ideas we might not have reached alone. But the decisions are human. The taste is human. The responsibility is human.
In our products, AI runs locally where possible — respecting privacy, reducing dependencies, giving you control. AI should serve the person using it, not the company that deployed it.
Always learning
Ship, learn, repeat. Every product teaches us something. Every project changes how we think about the next one. We document what we learn and share it in our Field Notes — not because we have all the answers, but because the process matters as much as the output.
The work is never finished. The standard is never final. There is always another iteration, another edge case, another way to make it better.