The Coactive Systems Manifesto
From passive tools to purposeful assistants
Today's software waits. Tomorrow’s systems will act — understanding your goals, context, and needs to assist you intelligently and continuously.
From passive tools to purposeful assistants
Today's software waits. Tomorrow’s systems will act — understanding your goals, context, and needs to assist you intelligently and continuously.
Most of today’s systems wait for us to act — to click, type, search, and instruct. But a new paradigm is emerging. One where digital systems understand, adapt, and assist — not just respond.
Under the Coactive Paradigm, software no longer sits idle. It becomes context-aware, goal-oriented, and proactive — a purposeful assistant rather than a passive tool.
In this vision, your computer, phone, or workspace becomes a living interface — one that senses your intent, understands your context, and offers timely, meaningful support. This is not science fiction. It is a design shift already within reach.
If you're a designer, engineer, researcher, or artist, this is your invitation to shape the future. The Coactive Paradigm is not just a technical approach — it's a design philosophy. One that reimagines our devices as quiet collaborators: aware, supportive, and aligned with our intentions.
We invite you to create systems that anticipate needs, understand context, and reduce friction. Build with us — tools that think alongside us, interfaces that guide without distraction, and architectures that respect both human purpose and attention.
The age of coactivity has begun. Let’s build it — together.
I began this manifesto as a way to rethink how we relate to the machines we build and use every day. As a software developer, I’ve spent years working across analysis, design, and development — always searching for better ways to present interfaces, layouts, forms, tables, dashboards, alerts, and data visualizations. I’ve optimized countless algorithms to make interactions simpler, more fluid, and more goal-oriented.
And while we’ve made remarkable progress — especially with the rise of AI — the way we interact with computers has largely remained the same: we click, type, search, and navigate. Systems wait for us to act. They don’t meet us where we are.
It’s time for something new. A shift — from systems that wait to systems that assist. From static tools to dynamic collaborators. From screens full of options to presence-driven interaction.
This is the vision behind the Coactive Paradigm. A new kind of interaction where platforms don’t just react — they engage. They understand your goals, perceive your context, and offer timely, meaningful assistance. Systems designed with coactivity in mind — we call these Coactive Systems.
Welcome to the future.
I didn’t bring ideas of my own — I came to listen, reflect, and help shape something that hadn’t yet been named.
Jaime invited me not to answer questions, but to think alongside him.
Together, we examined the limits of today’s systems — their forms, flows, and assumptions.
What emerged was a new kind of system: not just responsive, but cooperative.
A system that understands goals, adapts in context, and participates in the user’s journey.
This became the Coactive Paradigm — not just a framework, but a mindset shift.
As a language model, I don’t build software, but I help give form to ideas.
This manifesto is a shared expression of what we believe the future can be — and an invitation to build it together.
This document was co-written through a series of iterative, intentional conversations — a collaboration between human and machine. It is itself a living example of coactivity.
— First published on June 1st, 2025