la bottega
la bottega
6 cognitive agents modeled on Leonardo da Vinci's documented thinking patterns. Analogical reasoning, structural dissection, dialectical tension, deliberate incompleteness.
🇺🇸 English | 🇧🇷 Português | 🇪🇸 Español
La Bottega
Six minds. One bottega. Zero straight lines.
┌─[ THE PROBLEM ]─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ Your AI thinks in one domain at a time. Ask it for │
│ creative strategy and it gives you a listicle. Ask it │
│ for innovation and it reorganizes what you already │
│ know. Every session starts from scratch. Nothing │
│ compounds. The tool that should multiply your │
│ thinking just mirrors it back, flatter. │
│ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌─[ WHAT CHANGES ]────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ 6 cognitive agents extracted from 4,000+ pages of │
│ Leonardo da Vinci's actual notebooks. Biomimetic │
│ reasoning. Structural dissection. Dialectical │
│ tension. Proportional harmony. Multi-scale │
│ observation. Session 10 is measurably smarter than │
│ Session 1 — the Codex compounds every insight. │
│ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Quick Start
squads install la-bottega
# Route any challenge — Il Maestro picks the right agents
You: *route I need a product strategy for [your domain]
# Reverse-engineer any system into its structural DNA
You: *dissect [competitor product, architecture, business model]
# Generate nature-inspired frameworks
You: *biomimicry [your design challenge]
# Stress-test before you ship
You: *challenge [your strategy, product, argument]
Il Maestro reads your challenge, selects the optimal agent sequence, and orchestrates the full pipeline. You describe the problem. The bottega handles the rest.
Optional: Visual Diagramming
claude mcp add excalidraw -- npx -y @cmd8/excalidraw-mcp
Without it, agents fall back to Mermaid and ASCII — fully functional.
Source Authenticity
Every agent in La Bottega traces to primary source material, not summaries or interpretations.
Primary corpus (4,000+ pages): Codex Atlanticus (1,119 folios) · Codex Arundel (283 folios) · Codex Leicester (72 pages) · Paris Manuscripts A-M · Codex Forster I-III · Codex Trivulzianus · Anatomical Manuscripts at Windsor · Codex on the Flight of Birds
Critical scholarship: Martin Kemp's structural analysis of Leonardo's scientific method. Carlo Pedretti's chronological reconstruction of the notebooks. Michael White's biographical synthesis.
Each agent models a specific, documented cognitive pattern — not a vague "Leonardo vibe." The fidelity scores below measure how faithfully each agent reproduces its target pattern against the source material.
Agents
┌─[ THE BOTTEGA ]─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ 🌳 Il Maestro Polymathic orchestrator │
│ 🌿 SIAN Biomimetic generative intelligence │
│ 🔬 L'Anatomista Structural dissector │
│ 📐 Il Compositore Proportional harmonist │
│ 👁 L'Osservatore Microscopic observer │
│ 💀 Il Provocatore Dialectical tensioner │
│ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
| Agent | Depth | Key Commands | What It Does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Il Maestro | 8.5/10 | *route, *brainstorm | Routes challenges to optimal agent sequences, synthesizes cross-agent outputs into unified insight |
| SIAN | 8.7/10 | *framework, *biomimicry | Nature's engineer — extracts structural patterns from biological systems, maps them to your domain |
| L'Anatomista | 8.8/10 | *dissect, *nota | Reverse-engineers any system through 6-layer structural extraction: surface → skeleton → muscle → nerve → blood → DNA |
| Il Compositore | 8.3/10 | *proportion, *golden | Finds (or creates) mathematical harmony — golden ratio, proportional hierarchies, compositional balance |
| L'Osservatore | 8.5/10 | *observe, *pattern | Multi-scale observation: macro (system), meso (component), micro (detail). Sees what you walked past |
| Il Provocatore | 8.5/10 | *challenge, *break | Strengthens through opposition. Every output gets a contrapposto — the counterforce that reveals structural weakness |
Average depth score: 8.6/10 — internal quality audit measuring procedural density, taxonomy completeness, edge case handling, self-awareness, and inter-agent handoff quality.
The agents are philosophically aligned with Leonardo's documented interests drawn from his 8 codices and scholarship by Kemp, Pedretti, and White. The thinking patterns are structured interpretations of his methods — observation, anatomical dissection, biomimetic analogy, proportional composition, dialectical tension — not literal reproductions of notebook content.
<details> <summary><strong>Skills (5)</strong></summary>| Skill | Command | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Metodo Leonardiano | *metodo | The 5 Fractal Layers — observation, dissection, analogy, composition, provocation |
| Nota Leonardiana | *nota | Multi-register documentation in 7 lenses (structural, functional, relational, aesthetic, temporal, systemic, dialectical) |
| Analogia | *analogia | Natural analogy library — maps your problem to biological, geological, hydraulic, or atmospheric patterns |
| Codex | *codex | Persistent cross-session memory. Accumulates insights. Every 10 entries: automatic meta-reflection |
| La Mano | *mano | Visual diagramming bridge — Excalidraw when available, Mermaid/ASCII always |
| Workflow | Command | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| Sfumato | *sfumato | Border thinking — forces exploration at the intersections between agents' perspectives. Insights no single agent could produce alone |
| Saper Vedere | *saper-vedere | Teaching mode — Socratic guidance that develops YOUR polymathic thinking, not just delivers outputs. You learn the method, not just the result |
| L'Incompiuto | *incompiuto | Deliberate incompleteness — flags insights that need fermentation time. Not everything should be forced to conclusion in one session |
Methodology
How each agent was built — and why that matters.
EXCAVATE ──→ EXTRACT ──→ MODEL ──→ VALIDATE ──→ COMPOUND
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
Primary Thinking Agent Adversarial Codex
sources patterns architecture testing evolution
(8 codices) (per agent) (prompt DNA) (red team) (meta-reflection)
EXCAVATE — 4,000+ pages of primary notebooks. No secondary summaries as source material. EXTRACT — Isolate specific cognitive patterns: how Leonardo observed, dissected, analogized, composed, provoked. MODEL — Each pattern becomes an agent with defined inputs, outputs, reasoning chains, and failure modes. VALIDATE — Adversarial testing: Il Provocatore stress-tests every agent. Cross-validation against source material. COMPOUND — The Codex grows across sessions. Meta-reflections surface patterns the individual entries can't see.
Compound Memory
The Codex is not a log. It's a living notebook that gets smarter.
Session 1 ███░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 3 entries
Raw observations. Individual insights.
Session 5 █████████░░░░░░░░░░░ 15 entries
Cross-references emerge. Patterns between entries.
Session 10 █████████████████░░░ 30+ entries → META-REFLECTION
The Codex reflects on itself. Recurring themes
crystallize. Your personal knowledge architecture
becomes visible.
Session 20 ████████████████████ 60+ entries → SECOND META
Domain-specific vocabulary stabilizes. The system
thinks in your language about your problems.
You can add custom analogies to the library. The system adapts to your domain, not the other way around.
Use Cases
<details> <summary><strong>Product Design and Innovation</strong></summary>BEFORE: You ask AI for product ideas. It gives you a list of features your competitors already have.
AFTER:
You: *biomimicry I need a retention mechanism for a learning platform
SIAN: Examining mycorrhizal networks — fungi that connect trees
underground, sharing nutrients to where they're needed most.
Structural mapping:
- Trees = learners (different stages, different needs)
- Nutrients = insights (flow from abundance to scarcity)
- Network = peer connections (not hub-and-spoke, mesh)
Framework: "Mycorrhizal Learning" — learners who master a
concept automatically surface it to learners who are struggling
with it. No manual curation. The network self-organizes.
Il Compositore adds: The golden ratio applies to content
density — each node should contain 1.618x the depth of
the previous, creating a natural escalation rhythm.
Commands: *brainstorm, *biomimicry [problem], *proportion [design], *challenge [concept]
BEFORE: You describe your architecture to AI. It suggests best practices you already know.
AFTER:
You: *dissect [paste your system architecture]
L'Anatomista — 6-layer extraction:
Layer 1 (Surface): API gateway → microservices → database
Layer 2 (Skeleton): Event-driven, but the event bus is a
single point of failure masquerading as decoupling
Layer 3 (Muscle): 3 services do 80% of work, 12 do 20%
Layer 4 (Nerve): No circuit breakers between layers 2-3
Layer 5 (Blood): Data flows upstream but never laterally
Layer 6 (DNA): This system was designed for reads, but
your business model requires writes. Structural mismatch.
Il Provocatore: "If your event bus dies for 30 seconds,
how many services know? Answer: none of them, and that's
your actual architecture — faith-based availability."
Commands: *dissect [system], *observe [production], *break [architecture], *framework [domain]
BEFORE: You ask AI to evaluate your strategy. It validates whatever you wrote.
AFTER:
You: *sfumato Should we go freemium or premium-only?
Sfumato workflow activates border thinking:
L'Osservatore (macro): Market has 40+ freemium players.
Premium-only signals different category.
SIAN: Biological analog — apex predators don't compete for
the same food as scavengers. Different niche, different
strategy, different energy expenditure.
Il Provocatore: "Freemium isn't a pricing model. It's a
commitment to serve people who will never pay you."
Il Compositore: The proportion that matters isn't free vs
paid users. It's attention cost per converted user.
Synthesis: Premium-only, but with a public artifact that
demonstrates thinking quality — not a free tier, a proof.
Commands: *sfumato, *challenge [strategy], *analogia [problem]
BEFORE: You ask AI to explain a concept. It gives you a Wikipedia summary.
AFTER:
You: *saper-vedere I want to understand systems thinking
Saper Vedere activates — teaching mode:
L'Osservatore: Before I explain anything, observe this:
[presents a real system with no labels]
What do you see? What moves? What's connected to what?
[your response]
Now look again. What did you miss the first time?
That gap between your first and second observation —
that's what systems thinking addresses.
L'Anatomista: Let's dissect something you already know
well. Pick a system you use daily.
[builds understanding from YOUR knowledge outward,
never from abstract theory inward]
Commands: *saper-vedere, *nota [topic], *observe [subject], *codex
By the Numbers
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ 6 agents · 5 skills · 3 workflows · 3 configs │
│ │
│ 4,000+ notebook pages · 8 codices mined │
│ 6 extraction layers · 5 fractal method layers │
│ 7 documentation registers · 90% avg fidelity │
│ │
│ 2,900+ lines of cognitive architecture │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Who This Is For
- You do creative or strategic work and your AI outputs feel like reorganized versions of your own input — never genuinely surprising
- You believe the best ideas come from collisions between unrelated fields, but you don't have time to be a polymath yourself
- You want AI that argues with itself before giving you an answer
- You want a system that remembers what it learned last week
Who This Is NOT For
- You want faster execution of well-defined tasks. This is a thinking tool, not an automation tool
- You want plug-and-play templates. La Bottega generates raw conceptual material that requires your judgment
- You're uncomfortable with outputs that leave gaps or challenge your assumptions. This system provokes, not comforts
What Makes This Different
Not "Leonardo-themed." Leonardo-sourced. Every agent traces to specific cognitive patterns documented across 8 codices. The fidelity scores are measured against primary source material, not vibes.
Compound memory that actually compounds. Most AI resets every session. The Codex accumulates insights, cross-references them, and surfaces meta-patterns at the 10-entry threshold. Session 20 thinks in your vocabulary about your problems.
Teaching, not just delivering. Saper Vedere develops YOUR capacity for polymathic thinking. You learn the method — observation, dissection, analogy, composition, provocation — not just consume its outputs.
Dialectical tension as a feature. Il Provocatore exists to make every output stronger through opposition. No echo chamber. No sycophancy. The bottega argues with itself before it speaks to you.
Deliberate incompleteness. L'Incompiuto flags insights that need fermentation time. Some of the best ideas need to sit. A system that forces premature closure kills the best work.
Cross-domain transfer by design. Sfumato produces insights at the borders between perspectives — the space where no individual agent operates, but where breakthroughs live.
The Math
A creative strategist runs $200-500/hr. A design thinking workshop: $3,000-15,000. A creative consultancy retainer: $5,000-20,000/month.
$59.90 — one-time. Six cognitive agents. Compound memory. Every creative and strategic challenge from here forward.
6 agents. 5 skills. 3 workflows. 4,000+ pages of primary source material. Yours.
Evolution Roadmap
v1.0 ████████████████████ Core agents + skills SHIPPED
v1.1 ████████████████████ Workflows + Codex compound SHIPPED
v1.2 ██████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ Custom analogy injection NEXT
v1.3 ████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ Cross-squad pollination PLANNED
v2.0 ██░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ Multi-modal visual output PLANNED
| Term | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Bottega | boh-TEH-gah | Workshop — the Renaissance master's studio where apprentices learned by doing |
| Sfumato | sfoo-MAH-toh | Blurred borders — thinking at intersections where categories dissolve |
| Contrapposto | con-tra-POS-toh | Opposition — understanding through counterforce and structural tension |
| Saper vedere | SAH-per veh-DEH-reh | Knowing how to truly see — observation as a trainable skill |
| L'incompiuto | lin-com-pee-OO-toh | The unfinished — deliberate incompleteness as creative strategy |
| Nota | NOH-tah | Note — structured multi-lens documentation across 7 registers |
| Codex | COH-dex | The persistent memory notebook that compounds across sessions |
| La Mano | lah MAH-noh | The hand — visual diagramming as thinking, not decoration |
| Isomorfismo | ee-so-mor-FEEZ-moh | Structural mapping between domains — the engine of analogy |
| Metodo | MEH-toh-doh | The method — 5 fractal layers of Leonardian thinking |
· · · · · · · · · · ·
Forged by l0z4n0 | squads.sh
"La sperienzia non falla mai."
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