Operating a Company as Code
TL;DR: What if a company could run entirely as code, where every business decision, document, and system change is committed, versioned, and auditable — just like software?
The Premise
Most companies claim to be “digital-first.” But few are built as digital systems.
The question at the heart of StudioAsCode: Can every business decision, document, and system change be committed, versioned, and auditable just like software?
This isn’t just a slogan. It’s a real architectural approach: modern enterprises, especially those in regulated industries, can be built with the same reproducibility, traceability, and security found in production-grade infrastructure.
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
The concept isn’t entirely new:
- Coinbase uses this approach, keeping their security controls, application code, and internal policies in GitHub Enterprise as ‘company-as-code’ for transparency
- Salto has applied similar ideas to SaaS configuration management
What sets the Company-as-Code approach apart is how it brings compliance, governance, and automation together in a single, versioned framework.
The Philosophy
Running a company as code dissolves traditional boundaries between technical and organizational work.
How This Works
This approach fundamentally shifts how organizations think and operate:
| Traditional Approach | Company-as-Code Approach |
|---|---|
| Decisions made in meetings, recorded in slides | Decisions made in commits, recorded in Git history |
| Compliance handled by external auditors | Compliance embedded in IaC modules and tests |
| Knowledge trapped in teams | Knowledge published as Markdown, reusable as code |
| Scaling through hiring | Scaling through automation and reproducible workflows |
This philosophy isn’t about replacing people — it’s about empowering them with a shared source of truth: a living codebase that reflects the organization itself.
The Three Pillars
The approach combines:
- The rigor of security and compliance consulting
- The discipline of infrastructure automation
- The capability of AI-assisted engineering as practical tools built into real workflows
Changes are versioned, traceable, and auditable by design.
Research Focus Areas
Can compliance frameworks be expressed as Infrastructure as Code?
Tools like HashiCorp Sentinel and Chef InSpec demonstrate this is possible. They encode compliance controls as automated tests, providing consistency and clear audit trails for standards like:
- ISO 27001
- SOC 2
- HIPAA
Can security governance be automated through pipelines?
Policy-as-code frameworks enable organizations to enforce security policies automatically in infrastructure pipelines, moving beyond document-based approaches.
What would it mean for AI systems to assist with audits?
Safely, verifiably, and explainably. Automated evidence collection, risk identification, and controls testing can significantly reduce manual effort while maintaining auditability.
The Vision
Fully automate, version, and audit compliance, governance, and DevSecOps as code.
Imagine an Organization Where
- Cloud infrastructure is automatically checked against ISO 27001 controls
- Documentation updates trigger compliance validation pipelines
- AI agents monitor drift and assist in audit preparation
- Every improvement can be traced back to the exact commit that made it happen
This is the direction: building carefully and systematically toward Company as Code.
The Reality Check
This isn’t a success story yet. It’s a building story.
StudioAsCode is actively developing these approaches—repositories maturing, documentation evolving, frameworks stabilizing.
If a company can be run as code, the proof should be in versioned commits, not just in presentations.
That’s what this research and development is about.
The Path Forward
Companies can be versioned. Automated. Improved. Just like engineering projects.
StudioAsCode is exploring this approach through active development, where each versioned commit, configuration file, and iteration brings the concept closer to practical reality.
Company as Code isn’t just a philosophy — it’s an architectural approach under active validation.