---
title: "About | Openshard"
description: "A letter from Michael Obasa, founder of Openshard, and what we believe."
url: https://openshard.dev/resources/about
markdown: https://openshard.dev/resources/about.md
updated: 2026-10-24
---
# A letter from the founder

Hi,

I'm Michael. I've spent my career running production infrastructure, most recently the cloud systems behind live news broadcasts reaching 65 million people a week. In that world every change has a record: who made it, who approved it and whether it was checked, because a bad change is live in seconds.

Then I started building with AI coding agents, and that record disappeared. Which agent made this change? Did the tests really pass, or did it just say they did? Where did my token bill go? The agents said "done", and I had to take their word for it. I wanted to trust them, and I had no way to check.

So I built receipts. Every agent run gets one: what changed, whether the checks really passed, who approved it and what it cost. Each receipt is signed, so if anyone edits it later, it shows.

Receipts are the start. As agents get more capable, teams won't just need to see what they did. They'll need to decide what they're allowed to do: which code they can touch, who has to approve it and how much they can spend.

Openshard is open source, works with eight coding agents including Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, and I ship something most days. The changelog is the proof.

If your team lets agents write real code, I'd like to hear what's working and what isn't. Email me at michael@openshard.dev. I answer everything myself.

Michael Obasa, Founder

## What we believe

- **Proof over promises.** An agent saying "done" isn't proof. A receipt shows what changed, what was checked and what it cost.
- **Unknown stays unknown.** If Openshard couldn't record something, the receipt says so. It never fills a gap with a guess.
- **Your code stays yours.** Receipts record facts about the work, not your code. The core is open source, so you can check.
- **Ship every day.** Small changes, every day, out in the open. The changelog is the proof.

---

Openshard, Inc. · Delaware corporation · michael@openshard.dev
Install: `pipx install openshard && openshard setup` · Dashboard: https://app.openshard.dev · Source: https://github.com/openshard/openshard
Agent index: https://openshard.dev/llms.txt · Whole site in one file: https://openshard.dev/llms-full.txt