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2 | 2 |
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3 | 3 | **AI-written, machine-verified, human-optional.** |
4 | 4 |
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5 | | -> **New to Canon?** Start with the [Beginner Tutorial](docs/TUTORIAL.md) - build a complete task manager while learning why Canon exists and how it works. |
| 5 | +Canon is for teams building with AI agents who are tired of one truth: |
6 | 6 |
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7 | | -Canon is an AI-native programming system. It's not a human-first language—it's a canonical typed semantic IR that AIs author, with humans providing intent and policies while shipping artifacts are produced through verified compilation. |
| 7 | +**AI-generated code is fast — but it has ambient authority.** |
| 8 | +One "helpful" change can silently add network calls, leak secrets to logs, or widen permissions… and you won't notice until prod (or worse). |
| 9 | + |
| 10 | +**Canon flips the model.** |
| 11 | +Instead of trusting the AI's output, you make the AI write inside a *machine-checkable contract*: |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +- **Every side effect is explicit** (network, DB, filesystem, logging) |
| 14 | +- **Every side effect is capability-gated** (scoped permissions, no ambient authority) |
| 15 | +- **Policies block unsafe behavior before code is generated** |
| 16 | +- **Builds are deterministic and auditable** (what changed, what authority expanded, what rules were violated) |
| 17 | + |
| 18 | +In practice, Canon lets you run background agents with confidence — because they can refactor and extend systems, but **they cannot expand what the system is allowed to do** without tripping validation/policy gates. |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | +> **New to Canon?** Start with the [Tutorial](docs/TUTORIAL.md) — you'll see real-world value in minutes by watching Canon block a "reasonable" AI mistake (like logging PII) before it ships. |
| 21 | +
|
| 22 | +--- |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | +### The 10-second why |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +Traditional code: |
| 27 | +**Code runs with ambient authority → review is your only guardrail.** |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +Canon: |
| 30 | +**IR validates effects + caps → policies approve → code is generated → tests run.** |
| 31 | +If an agent tries to exceed permissions (wrong host, wrong DB collection, logging PII), the build fails. |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +--- |
8 | 34 |
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9 | 35 | ## Why Canon? |
10 | 36 |
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@@ -298,7 +324,7 @@ Canon uses a dialect system for extensibility: |
298 | 324 |
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299 | 325 | ## Documentation |
300 | 326 |
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301 | | -- [Beginner Tutorial](docs/TUTORIAL.md) - Build a task manager from scratch |
| 327 | +- [Tutorial](docs/TUTORIAL.md) - See Canon's value in 5 minutes (PII logging blocked at build time) |
302 | 328 | - [V1 Specification](docs/V1_SPECIFICATION.md) - Complete language specification |
303 | 329 | - [Implementation Plan](docs/IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md) - Architecture and roadmap |
304 | 330 | - [V1 Completion Plan](docs/V1_COMPLETION_PLAN.md) - Current implementation status |
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