From Napkin Sketch to 48 Projects: The CRAFT Journey
SPECIAL SERIES :: THE CRAFT™️ PRE-BETA :: POST 8
Most frameworks start with a whitepaper or a team of researchers. CRAFT started with frustration and a simple question: Why does every AI conversation feel like starting from zero?
Most frameworks start with a whitepaper or a team of researchers. CRAFT started with frustration and a simple question: Why does every AI conversation feel like starting from zero?
Today, I want to share something personal—the journey that led to CRAFT Framework. Not polished marketing copy, but the actual path from scattered experiments to a methodology I've now used across 48 real projects.
The 70+ Week Experiment
Ketelsen.ai began as an AI prompt and persona crafting experiment. The goal was simple: find and go beyond the obvious prompt ideas to discover what's genuinely creative and new. Every week, a new blog post. Every week, new experiments with AI.
For over 70 weeks now, that experiment has continued. Some weeks produced breakthroughs. Others produced lessons about what doesn't work. All of them are documented publicly in the weekly blog archives—a paper trail of exploration that anyone can verify.
When the Framework Emerged
Somewhere in those experiments, patterns started appearing. I kept solving the same problems in similar ways. I kept building structures that worked across different AI platforms. The question shifted from "how do I make this prompt work?" to "why am I rebuilding this structure every time?"
That's when CRAFT crystallized. Not as a theoretical concept, but as a practical observation: programming principles could transform how we interact with AI. Variables could persist context. Functions could encapsulate workflows. Objects could maintain state.
The Formal Development
On April 21, 2025, I formalized the Proof of Concept. The POC tested whether these programming-inspired patterns actually improved AI interactions at scale. The answer was yes—dramatically.
On July 20, 2025, the Alpha phase began. This is where CRAFT moved from "interesting experiment" to "reliable methodology." The Alpha blog post documents the technical architecture: Comments for structured communication, Data Types for consistent interpretation, Variables for persistent memory, Functions for encapsulated workflows, and Objects for stateful entities.
48 Projects and Counting
The campaign you're reading right now? It's Project 48. Every project uses CRAFT methodology. Every project builds on the patterns established in previous work. Every project proves the system works in real conditions, not just theory.
This isn't a framework I'm asking you to trust based on claims. It's a framework you can verify through 70+ weeks of public documentation. The receipts are visible at Ketelsen.ai.
Why This Matters for You
When the Beta opens on February 1, 2026, you won't be testing an untested idea. You'll be learning a methodology that's been refined across months of real work. One person, 70+ weeks, discovering what works—so you don't have to.
That's not hype. That's just the documented truth.
What's Next
The Beta represents something new: the first time anyone else will try CRAFT. After months of solo development, I'm ready to share this methodology with a community that will help shape its future.
Free Beta access. Founding Chef recognition. A chance to influence the direction of a battle-tested framework before it goes mainstream.
The journey continues at craftframework.ai
