Armory Works
Open-source software. Paid help.
A small, founder-led software firm focused on manufacturing operations. We write Forge in the open, and we consult on the messy middle between software and a working shop.
The person behind it.
I'm Dan. I've spent twenty-plus years building software for people who don't get to choose their software — public agencies, shops, families running on a whiteboard. Armory Works is what I built when I decided I wanted to choose.
Why the software is free.
I got tired of watching people rent their own operations. License fees for software you can't read, can't fix, and lose the day you stop paying. So Armory Works works one way: the code is open under Apache 2.0, the install is yours, and the only thing you pay for is people — deployment, integration, training, custom work. I'd rather earn a check by being useful than by holding a key.
Forge is the deepest thing we make, but this isn't a one-product firm. NOM, our meal planner, runs on the same stack and the same deal. So do the tools we build to build everything else — md-agent and drive-mcp are on GitHub because the workbench is open too. If a product ever ships under a different model, this page changes first.
Why “Armory Works”?
Armory, a place where tools of the trade are kept, maintained and issued to the people who need them. Works, the workshop, the production site, the foundry. We picked the name because it points at where the work actually gets done: not a glass tower, not a conference room, but the bay where somebody is actually building something.
The inspiration came from Armory Plastics LLC , a sibling manufacturing shop run by family. Many of the operational problems Forge solves first showed up there. The firm itself is Armory Works Technology, LLC, but day-to-day most people just call us Armory Works.
Kindred workshop. Shared name.
Four things, one deal.
Forge — the flagship
MES and ERP for manufacturers: the shop floor and the office on the same page, from job cards to the general ledger. Apache 2.0, self-hostable, and the deepest thing we make.
NOM — structured eating
The Nutrition Optimization Machine: meal planning for people running a structured diet. A different problem than a shop floor — same stack, same design language, same deal: free to run, supported if you want company.
md-agent
Orchestrates a team of coding agents against a single goal via file-based IPC. One of the tools this firm runs on — published because the model says the workbench is open too.
drive-mcp
Wires Google Drive into agent workflows over MCP. Small, sharp, and in daily use here.
The short version.
Open source is the default.
Forge is Apache 2.0. If you can self-host, you don't need us.
Quote-based, scope-first.
Consulting rates aren't on the site. We scope the work first, then write a proposal. Fixed or hourly.
We'll say no.
If we're not the right fit, we'd rather tell you that than take on work that ends poorly.
Good fit? Let's talk.
A paragraph about what you're trying to do is enough to start. We'll reply within a business day.
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