# ALPA — alpa.llc
> Research, strategy, and technology for the built environment.

ALPA (Alpaca Labs LLC) is a design and technology studio focused on the built environment. We partner with architecture, construction, and product teams creating better ways to live, work, and play. Based in New York, we serve clients across the United States and Latin America.

## Developer resources

- ALPA Developer Resources: https://alpa.llc/developers/
- OpenAPI 3.1 specification: https://alpa.llc/openapi.json
- Public API index: https://alpa.llc/api
- Public site metadata: https://alpa.llc/api/site
- Concise agent index: https://alpa.llc/llms.txt
- XML sitemap: https://alpa.llc/sitemap-index.xml

The ALPA Public API is read-only and requires no authentication. Every `/api/` error is JSON with a stable `code`, a human-readable `message`, and a concrete `resolution` hint. Public editorial pages support Markdown content negotiation: send `Accept: text/markdown` to the canonical page URL. Negotiated responses include `Vary: Accept`, and HTML advertises its Markdown sibling with `Link: rel="alternate"; type="text/markdown"`.

alpa.llc does not currently expose a public MCP server or webhook API. Norma's product-specific MCP access is separate and documented at https://norma.llc.

## Founder

Federico Negro is an architect, designer, and toolmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. He holds an MArch from Parsons School of Design and has spent two decades at the intersection of architecture, technology, and business.

Previously, Federico co-founded CASE, a design-innovation and technology consultancy (acquired by WeWork in 2015). As Global Head of Design at WeWork, he led the scaling of their design and construction group to a 1,000+ person organization across 30+ countries. He then founded Canoa, a software platform connecting design and procurement processes. Named one of Business Insider's 15 People Shaping the Office.

## Services

### Strategy & Research
Market analysis, product definition, and organizational roadmaps for companies working in the built environment.

### Workflow Design
Product design, UX, and service design for tools and platforms used by architecture, construction, and real estate teams.

### Data & Analysis
Sensor integration, space utilization studies, and analytics pipelines that turn fragmented workplace data into clear decisions.

### AI & Automation
Document intelligence, data extraction, and workflow automation powered by large language models and custom tooling.

### Software Development
Custom platforms, internal tools, and web applications built end-to-end for architecture, construction, and product teams.

## Products

### Norma — beta
A governed materials library with a ready-to-use agent on top. Norma ingests messy product sources — vendor emails, PDFs, quotes, links, schedules — extracts cited product data, stages it for review, and gives your team structured access to sourced material knowledge. Reachable by email and chat, or by your own agents through MCP. https://norma.llc

### Mapa — beta
Interactive map of every urban and rural padrón in the Maldonado department, Uruguay, with TONE zoning overlays, manzana price references, and one-click building-envelope analysis. 67,000+ parcels. Built for Estudio Local. https://estudio-local.com/mapa

### Arch Studio — live
An agent harness and institutional-memory system for architecture firms. Install it from the terminal and work inside an architecture-aware agent environment — with durable studio memory, firm-authored skills, and governed MCP connectors. Today it ships as a single open-source plugin, MIT licensed: 46 skills run on both Codex and Claude Code, while the 7 native agents and 4 hook handlers are Claude Code only. A dedicated standalone harness is in development. https://github.com/AlpacaLabsLLC/skills-for-architects

### Canoa — deprecated
A design tool that combined a browser-based vector canvas with real FF&E product data. Canoa's core lesson was that product intelligence matters, but pre-ingesting the whole product universe into an app is unrealistic. That research continues in Norma. US Patent #11,977,821.

## Arch Studio agents

Domain specialists that orchestrate skills end-to-end. Seven ship with the plugin, and run on Claude Code.

### Site Planner
Comprehensive site briefs from address to design-ready analysis — runs environmental, mobility, demographics, and neighborhood-history research in parallel and synthesizes opportunities and constraints.

### NYC Zoning Expert
Full property and zoning analysis for any New York City lot — landmarks, DOB permits and violations, ACRIS, HPD, BSA, zoning envelope from PLUTO, and 3D massing.

### Workplace Strategist
From headcount and work style to a fully defended space program — occupancy compliance, zone allocation, room schedules, lease-fit validation.

### FF&E Designer
From raw product data to a clean, QA'd, client-ready schedule — schedule cleanup, room-package composition, QA, and SIF dealer export.

### Product & Materials Researcher
Structured product research and spec extraction for any design brief — finds products, extracts specs from URLs and PDF catalogs, tags and classifies, finds alternatives.

### Sustainability Specialist
EPD research, embodied carbon analysis, and green building compliance — finds and parses EPDs, compares GWP, checks LEED materials-credit eligibility, writes spec thresholds.

### Brand Manager
Polished presentations and visual systems from any content or analysis — decks, color palettes, imagery, and output QA.

## Arch Studio skills (Claude Code)

46 open-source skills for Claude Code, designed for architects, designers, and AEC professionals. Commands are namespaced `/as:<skill>` as of v1.4. Full index at https://alpa.llc/skills.

### Zoning and NYC property
- Zoning Analysis NYC: buildable envelope analysis for lots in New York City — FAR, height, setbacks, yards, permitted uses, from PLUTO and the Zoning Resolution
- Zoning Envelope: interactive 3D zoning envelopes generated from an analysis report
- NYC Landmarks: LPC landmark and historic district check
- NYC DOB Permits: permit and filing history for NYC buildings
- NYC DOB Violations: DOB and ECB violations, class, status, and penalties
- NYC HPD: housing-code violations, complaints, and registration for residential buildings
- NYC BSA: variances and special permits that modify as-of-right zoning
- NYC ACRIS: property transaction records — deeds, mortgages, liens, ownership history
- NYC Property Report: combined due-diligence report across all NYC datasets

### Site analysis
- Environmental Analysis: climate, sun, flood, seismic, soil, contamination, topography
- Mobility Analysis: transit, walking, cycling, pedestrian infrastructure, airport access
- Demographics Analysis: population, income, age, housing, and employment around a site
- Site History: neighborhood context, adjacent uses, architectural character, planned development

### Workplace
- Workplace Programmer: space programming — area splits, room schedules, planned seat counts
- Occupancy Calculator: IBC Table 1004.5 occupant loads with gross/net handling and egress inputs

### FF&E and product data
- Product Research: brief-based FF&E research with sourced purchasing facts
- Product Match: find similar products from an image, name, or description
- Product Pair: complementary products — side tables for sofas, task lights for desks
- Product Enrich: auto-tag products with categories, colors, materials, and style tags
- Product Data Import: import raw product data into the schedule from any format
- Product Data Cleanup: normalize casing, dimensions, units, language, and materials
- Product Spec Bulk Fetch: extract structured specs from product URLs at scale
- Product Spec PDF Parser: extract structured specs from price books and spec sheets
- Product Image Processor: download, resize, and remove backgrounds at scale
- Master Schedule: initialize, validate, and inspect the project's product library
- CSV to SIF: export the product library as SIF for dealer procurement systems
- SIF to CSV: parse dealer SIF files back into readable spreadsheets

### Sustainability
- EPD Research: search registries and manufacturer sites for Environmental Product Declarations
- EPD Parser: extract GWP, life-cycle stages, and impact metrics from an EPD PDF
- EPD Compare: side-by-side normalized GWP comparison with LEED credit check
- EPD to Spec: CSI specification language for EPD submittals and GWP thresholds

### Specifications
- Spec Writer: CSI MasterFormat outline specifications from a materials or products list

### Project records
- Project: one interface for project facts and decisions
- Meeting Minutes: transcript or notes into collision-safe, source-linked minutes
- Site Visit Report: field notes into a typed report that separates what you saw from what you were told
- Tasklist: permanent task IDs, ownership, and lifecycle history
- Workplan: turn a request into a traceable, execution-ready plan
- Timetracker: reconstruct what you worked on, confirm the hours yourself

### Studio tooling
- Studio: route architecture tasks to the right agent or skill
- Skill Maker: scaffold new skills that follow the house patterns
- Tool Catalog: show all available skills, agents, and their commands
- Studio Feedback: draft a bug report or feature request — you press submit
- Slide Deck Generator: self-contained HTML slide decks, no PowerPoint or dependencies
- Color Palette Generator: palettes from a description, image, or hex code, with contrast checks
- Resize Images: batch-resize photos for web and print in one command
- Learn: a guided course that teaches architects Claude Code itself

## Articles

Recent writing at https://alpa.llc/articles:

- Architecture Studio Now Runs on Codex (2026-08)
- AEC Magazine on the Judgement Stack (2026-07)
- Can Your Firm Train Its Own AI Model? Pre-Training, Fine-Tuning, and RAG, Explained (2026-07)
- Architecture Studio 1.4: The Skills You Write Yourself (2026-07)
- Architecture Studio 1.3: A Course in the Terminal (2026-07)
- Architecture Firms Need an Agent Harness (2026-06)
- Introducing Norma (2026-06)
- Architecture Studio at Three Months: Your Project Gets a Memory (2026-06)
- How Architecture Firms Should Build Their AI Stack (2026-05)
- Agentic AI in AEC: What Actually Changes for Practice (2026-05)
- Architecture Studio's First Month: 100+ Stars on GitHub (2026-04)
- Most AEC AI Apps Are Just Claude Wrappers (2026-03)
- Introducing Architecture Studio (2026-03)
- Claude Code Cheat Sheet for Architects and Designers (2026-03)

## Contact
- Website: https://alpa.llc
- Email: hi@alpacalabs.co
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/alpaca-labs
- Substack: https://alpacalabs.substack.com