Perceive
Environment, assets and OT signal, time-stamped raw capture
Meters, control systems, finance, facilities, work orders and field capture, each time-stamped and attributed to its source system
VULCAN.Before the platform,the count.
VULCAN: the governed decision and action platform for facilities operations.
Start with the eight-gate diagnostic. Then perceive, interpret, model, decide, act and prove against one governed operating record. Designed for facilities operations; one operator portfolio engagement is measured below.
Your record. Your rights. Built to compound inside your walls. ↓
ESTABLISHEDSelected into Palantir Startup Fellowship Cohort 003.Read the announcement
ESTABLISHED
one national operator, measured
- several hundred
- Datasets enumerated across the estate
- 20,000+
- Columns catalogued
- under half
- Carrying a documented owner and a defensible definition
- 3%
- Met the initial authority threshold
Measured at one national operator across one operator portfolio. Reported as evidence from one engagement, not as a sector benchmark. No client is named.
01 / The thesis
AI is abundant. Your operating record is not.
ESTABLISHED
One national operator's estate held several hundred datasets and more than twenty thousand columns. Fewer than half had a documented owner and defensible definition. The data was extensive. The meaning was missing.
Anyone can buy
- ·Models
- ·Warehouses
- ·Dashboards
- ·Agents
Only you can accumulate
- 01What was known
- 02What was decided
- 03What was done
- 04What happened
- 05What was learned
PRINCIPLE
Operational platforms remain the systems of record. VULCAN is the operational ontology above them, holding every facility, asset, system, obligation, dollar and decision as governed objects the company and its AI can reason and act through.
The durable advantage is not the model. It is the permissioned record of what was observed, decided, executed, and what happened next.
Fig 08 · Intelligence flywheel
coded surface · illustrative
PRINCIPLE
The intelligence flywheel
One segment cannot be bought
the thesis · at portfolio scale
Every figure on the surface resolves to the operating unit inside an asset someone is responsible for.
How to read every claim on this page
ESTABLISHED
What has been observed, measured, or verified in the sector or in a stated engagement.
PRINCIPLE
A design commitment this brief argues for. It constrains the build unless deliberately amended.
The marking stops an aspiration from being read as a commitment.
02 / The constant
Accountability sits with people who do not control the operating systems.
Across every asset class, the platform is built around evidence rather than control.
ESTABLISHED
01
Accountability holder
Owners and investors
Returns against what was underwritten, and the obligations that come with the capital.
System boundary
The third-party operator's PMS, CRM, finance and field systems.
02
Accountability holder
Asset managers
Business plan, CapEx, hold-or-sell, and the reporting behind each.
System boundary
The definitions the operating teams use to produce the numbers.
03
Accountability holder
Compliance and fund stakeholders
Contract compliance periods, covenant tests, audit evidence on demand.
System boundary
The systems where the underlying events are recorded.
04
Accountability holder
Government stakeholders
Standards and outcomes at installation facilities.
System boundary
The operating systems of the companies running the properties.
PRINCIPLE
Accountable people need the source, permission, time and decision attached to each fact. The IT/OT seam connects business commitments to the equipment record.
The next estates
- Installations.
- The same shape: facility-related control systems for power, HVAC and water, fragmented across vendors, operationally critical. No deployment exists today.
- Utilities.
- Metered estates where the invoice and the meter never reconcile. No engagement exists today.
The architecture is asset-class agnostic because the next estates are installations and utilities.
Fig. The IT/OT seamPRINCIPLE
IT
Business systems · what was charged
- Billing system
- Finance and ERP
- Work order system
- Commitments and contracts
OT
Equipment systems · what the meter recorded
- Meter register
- Building controls
- SCADA and telemetry
- Access control
The question that needs both
The meter recorded one number. The billing system charged another. Which one can the operator defend?
Illustrative of the surface, stated as a design principle. No delivered work is claimed.
the estate · one governed portfolio
Different assets carry different obligations. Accountability still lands with one operating team.
03 / The system
VULCAN. One operating model.
PRINCIPLE
Interpret
Raw signal becomes detections, states and anomalies
Consumption, exceptions, backlog, certification and service state, resolved against the operating calendar
Model
Detections resolve against the mission ontology
Facility, asset, system, obligation, client, ownership entity, metric, decision and outcome as governed objects
Decide
Reasoning bounded by policy and evidence, producing a recommendation an operator can interrogate
A cited answer at the right level of detail, or an abstention where the evidence is thin
Act and prove
Approved actions route into systems of record with lineage
An assigned intervention with a named approver, written to the decision ledger with the outcome that followed
PRINCIPLE
Built around the stack you already run.
The operational graph
- Assets
- Equipment, facilities and control systems
- People
- Operators, field teams and named approvers
- Places
- Sites, plants, installations and zones
- Tasks
- Work orders, inspections and corrective actions
- Risks
- Failure modes, exposure and readiness gaps
- Costs
- Budget, spend, downtime and resource impact
- Approvals
- Authority, permissions and escalation
- Decisions
- Rationale, action, outcome and audit trail
Conceptual illustration, not a customer ontology. Designed to link each recommendation to its source, approver and recorded outcome.
A traceable decision
- Source
- Observed fact, time and authority
- Approval
- Named person, permission and rationale
- Outcome
- Receiving-system state and recorded result
Integrate, not replace
- Business systems
- Finance, ERP, work orders, contracts and identity
- Equipment systems
- Meters, building controls, telemetry and approved sensing
Client-controlled boundaries
- Client-owned environments and governed data platforms
- Edge and OT network boundaries
- Identity, permissions and approved receiving systems
- Client-selected models and sensing outputs, when approved
Design commitments, not a claim of deployed integrations. Environment, data location, model use, retention, export and writeback are confirmed in engagement terms.
Evidence to recorded outcome
PRINCIPLE
- 01Perceivegoverned evidence, at unit level
- 02Interpretcontext, definitions, authority
- 03Modeloperating relationships and scenarios
- 04Decidescenario + recorded rationale
- 05Actcontrolled execution in-system
- 06Provemeasured outcome returns as signal
- ↺ every outcome returns as the next signal
Answer or abstain
PRINCIPLE
governed answer
ledger row 2,431
The meter at Building 4 recorded 41,206 kWh in March. The billing system charged 44,910. The difference sits in three submeters never mapped to a suite.
Source · Meter register · authoritativeObserved · 06:15 todayDefinition · billback_kwh v2Level of detail · meter · monthConfidence · measuredAccess · client-scoped
Why
- 2,840 kWhUnmapped submeters, west wing
- 612 kWhCommon-area allocation with no clause basis
- 252 kWhEstimated read carried twice
Assign ownerModel scenarioOpen decision recordView evidence
What travels with it
Authority · Definition · Confidence · Approval
Measured, inferred or forecast, never blurred together.
- Authority
- Source, lineage and owner shown on the answer itself.
- Definition
- Metric linked to its level of detail, formula and version.
- Confidence
- Measured, inferred or forecast, never blurred together.
- Approval
- Action routes to an accountable person, not a model.
And a governed refusal
I cannot answer this at meter level. Two sources disagree on the circuit mapping and the conflict is unresolved; a stewardship exception is open and assigned. Here is what I can support: building-level consumption, reconciled as of yesterday.
PRINCIPLE
Five operating experiences.
VULCAN
Illustrative surface · not live client dataMission control · portfolio
Run
Command
Designed to surface change, rank exceptions, assign owners and track the enterprise response, from portfolio down to one asset.
Executives · regionals · asset management · clients
- Owner assigned
Building 4 · west wing
Billback gap opened, 3 weeks
- Escalated
North plant
Shutdown slipping on 14 work orders
- Under review
Tower 2
Certification close rate down
01 / 05 · scroll to move through the surface
What VULCAN is not
- ×A replacement for your PMS, ERP or engagement tools.
- ×Another BI dashboard environment.
- ×A generic chatbot over ungoverned tables.
- ×Unsupervised autonomous decision-making.
the operating floor · where the week is decided
The same record on every screen, so the meeting argues about the decision, not the numbers.
04 / The diagnostic
Before the platform, the count.
You cannot govern an estate you have not counted. The diagnostic is the first engagement and it is the same on every estate, because counting datasets, scoring authority and mapping boundaries does not depend on what the estate is.
PRINCIPLE
Discovery standard / 08 gates
And do not accept it until
Dataset census
Dataset census
And do not accept it untilEvery dataset enumerated with columns, row volume, owner and last refresh
Authority registry
Authority registry
And do not accept it untilEach dataset scored for authority; score, basis and reviewer recorded and reproducible
Duplicate resolution
Duplicate resolution
And do not accept it untilRecut datasets identified, the survivor named, lossy recuts flagged
Identifier profile
Identifier profile
And do not accept it untilCandidate keys profiled; collisions and drift documented, never corrected in silence
Crosswalk
Crosswalk
And do not accept it untilAn explicit bridge between the analytics key and the system-of-record identifier; exceptions quarantined, not merged
Boundary matrix
Boundary matrix
And do not accept it untilEvery dataset assigned a tier; those barred from broad pipelines listed explicitly
Ingestion manifest
Ingestion manifest
And do not accept it untilA deterministic include, defer or reject call per dataset, diffable between runs
Expectations suite
Expectations suite
And do not accept it untilAutomated expectations that fail the build, not a report read afterwards
Where the obligation lands.
Operator portfolio is established; every other pairing is a PRINCIPLE design commitment, not a deployment claim or a capability shipping today.
Operator portfolio
ESTABLISHED
- Unit of account
- The unit
- Carries
- The lease and its counterparty
Commercial
PRINCIPLE
- Unit of account
- The suite
- Carries
- The lease clause and its obligation
Industrial
PRINCIPLE
- Unit of account
- The asset and its control loop
- Carries
- The work order and its permit
Energy and utilities
PRINCIPLE
- Unit of account
- The meter and its circuit
- Carries
- The tariff and the billback
Defense installation
PRINCIPLE
- Unit of account
- The facility and its control system
- Carries
- The readiness obligation
Facilities and field
PRINCIPLE
- Unit of account
- The facility and its service route
- Carries
- The work order and its service level
Logistics
PRINCIPLE
- Unit of account
- The node and its dock
- Carries
- The throughput commitment
Critical infrastructure
PRINCIPLE
- Unit of account
- The asset and its criticality tier
- Carries
- The compliance obligation
The diagnostic establishes the unit first. It does not transplant operator portfolio measurements into another industry.
PRINCIPLE
The gates contain no sector content.
- Dataset census
- Counts datasets
- Authority registry
- Scores authority
- Boundary matrix
- Assigns tiers
None of these operations depends on the industry. What changes is the unit of account and its obligation, established first.
Portability is a design principle, not evidence of deployment on every estate.
The same count runs on any estate. The question it answers differs by industry, and each sector page states its own.
- IndustrialThe asset and its control loopPRINCIPLE
- DefenseThe facility and its control systemPRINCIPLE
- Critical InfrastructureThe asset and its criticality tierPRINCIPLE
- EnergyThe meter and its circuitPRINCIPLE
- Facilities and fieldThe facility and its service routePRINCIPLE
- LogisticsThe node and its dockPRINCIPLE
- Mixed useThe suitePRINCIPLE
- Real estateThe unitPRINCIPLE
05 / The scorecard
Five outcomes, measured on your baseline.
PRINCIPLE
Before shipping, each capability names its target, owner, baseline, mechanism, and the measurement plan that will confirm or disprove the claim.
A
Assurance
Client and owner
Every obligation the estate carries is met, and the evidence is on the record.
- First
- Obligations closed on time
- Then
- Shorter reporting cycles
- Lands
- Renewed on the evidence
L
Living
Occupant and user
The people using the facility get the service that was promised to them.
- First
- Service levels honored
- Then
- Response times honored
- Lands
- Service proven, not asserted
L
Leverage
Operating capacity
Leaders spend their time deciding, not reconciling.
- First
- Time to an answer falls
- Then
- Rework avoided
- Lands
- More coverage per leader
I
Integrity
Resilience
Controls and evidence are there when someone asks.
- First
- Exceptions surfaced while fixable
- Then
- Audit evidence on demand
- Lands
- Obligations met before deadline
N
Net performance
Cost and asset plan
Cost and asset performance hold against plan, and the company knows why.
- First
- Variance explained, not estimated
- Then
- Unplanned cost contained
- Lands
- Actual against plan
Swipe the scorecard · 01 / 05
Fig 05 · Five-year compounding
coded surface · illustrative
PRINCIPLE
PRINCIPLE
Advantage over five operating years · illustrative
With a decision recordDashboards aloneIllustrative. The record accumulates only through operating; each year it survives, it is worth more and harder to reproduce.
the service outcome · measured at the facility
The scorecard protects the service delivered to the people using the facility while staffing, service and billing follow the requirement.
06 / The proof case
The method, worked once.
This is what the eight gates returned on one operator portfolio estate. The gates on yours are the same. The unit of account is what differs.
One diagnostic. One operator portfolio estate.
ESTABLISHEDThe measured output sits at the top of this page: several hundred datasets, twenty thousand columns, under half with a documented owner, three percent meeting the authority threshold. Your numbers will differ. The method will not: it has been run once at full scale, and nothing in it depends on the asset class.
Reported as evidence from one engagement, not as a sector benchmark. No client is named. None of these measurements transfers to another estate.
Fig 02 · Position map
coded surface · illustrative
PRINCIPLE
- Hold the standard
- Obligation load easing · Condition sound. The estate is sound and the register is light. The job is to keep it that way on evidence. Deciding metric: Compliance exceptions.
- Clear the register
- Obligation load mounting · Condition sound. The assets are sound but the obligations are stacking up. Clear the register before it becomes condition. Deciding metric: Backlog age.
- Plan the renewal
- Obligation load easing · Condition deferred. Condition has been deferred and the bill is coming. Plan the capital before it plans you. Deciding metric: Deferred maintenance liability.
- Stabilize first
- Obligation load mounting · Condition deferred. Deferred condition under a mounting obligation load. Sequence the work or the sequence will be chosen for you. Deciding metric: Unplanned downtime.
Condition deferredCondition sound
Obligation load easingObligation load mounting
Scroll to move through positions · positions are illustrative
Position
01 / 04
Condition sound · Obligation load easing
Hold the standard
The estate is sound and the register is light. The job is to keep it that way on evidence.
- 01Inspection cycle on schedule
- 02Service levels evidenced
- 03Reserve held to plan
Metric that decides it · Compliance exceptions
Condition sound · Obligation load easing
Hold the standard
The estate is sound and the register is light. The job is to keep it that way on evidence.
- Inspection cycle on schedule
- Service levels evidenced
- Reserve held to plan
Metric that decides it · Compliance exceptions
Condition sound · Obligation load mounting
Clear the register
The assets are sound but the obligations are stacking up. Clear the register before it becomes condition.
- Certifications scheduled ahead
- Backlog burned down weekly
- Vendors held to the window
Metric that decides it · Backlog age
Condition deferred · Obligation load easing
Plan the renewal
Condition has been deferred and the bill is coming. Plan the capital before it plans you.
- Condition surveyed to asset level
- Capital staged on evidence
- Discretionary spend capped
Metric that decides it · Deferred maintenance liability
Condition deferred · Obligation load mounting
Stabilize first
Deferred condition under a mounting obligation load. Sequence the work or the sequence will be chosen for you.
- Life-safety obligations first
- Shutdowns bundled into one window
- Every exception owned
Metric that decides it · Unplanned downtime
07 / At unit level
Worked at unit level.
The operator portfolio estate resolves to the unit. The level differs by asset class; the discipline does not.
One governed estate. The first estate is operator portfolio, at portfolio scale.
ESTABLISHEDOffice
01Operating cycleUnit 0247
AGREEMENT
RATE
COUNTERPARTY
CHANGEOVER
Operating cycle · Unit 0247 / Agreement · Rate · Counterparty · Changeover
Operating unit
The unit
The agreement, the rate, the counterparty and the changeover task all attach to the unit, inside an operating calendar.
Retail
02Twelve month cycleUnit 308
AgreementExtensionChangeover
Twelve month cycle · Unit 308 / Agreement · Extension · Changeover
Operating unit
The unit
The agreement, the extension and the changeover all resolve to the unit, across an operating cycle.
Industrial and flex
03Scattered site plan
H 14
Home level01 active
Scattered site plan / H 14
Operating unit
The facility
Scattered and horizontal stock makes the facility, not the site, the schedulable unit.
Mixed use
04Lease intelligenceSuite 4C
CLAUSE 01RECOVERY
CLAUSE 02RECOVERY
CLAUSE 03ESCALATION
Lease intelligence · Suite 4C / Clause 03 · Escalation
Operating unit
The suite and the lease clause
Recoveries, options and escalations live in clauses, not in a property average.
Medical office
05Certification recordCurrent
Facility
record
SCOPEPERIODEVIDENCEPROGRAMrecord
Certification record · Current / Scope · Period · Evidence · Program
Operating unit
The certified facility
Compliance attaches to the facility and its inspection period, not to the unit alone.
Data and life science
06Occupant service planLevel 03
Occupant
Care
Staffing
Billing
Occupant service plan · Level 03 / Care · Staffing · Billing
Operating unit
The occupant and the service level
Service obligations and access requirements attach to the facility and its operating systems.
Discovery evidence belongs only to one operator portfolio, shown here under Office as a neutral label. It does not establish delivery in any commercial asset class. Other classes remain PRINCIPLE design commitments.
Worked example: one operator portfolio, at unit level.
Site → building → unit → space
The obligation attaches here
Unit 402 · four spaces · one address
Unit level says
in service
Space level says
75% · one space exposed
Space A carries
Term 2025-27Rate $1,145Counterparty · corporateChangeover taskExtension decision
What breaks above the unit of account
Availability and exposure
A part-failed system reads as available. Real exposure is understated in the weeks it matters most.
Cost allocation
Consumption and cost are set per meter and per suite. A building-level average hides which circuit is misbilled.
And the parties are not one party: the signer, the payer and the user are often three. Counterparty relationships are modeled explicitly and privacy-aware.
ESTABLISHED
The managed and owned split is not a operator portfolio artifact. Any portfolio with third-party management and direct ownership carries both lenses over the same asset, and the two must never disagree.
year's end · the facility at dusk
Ninety days later, the same facility, with a record that can say what changed and why.
fit-out · where the obligation becomes work
The suite and its lease clauses define what is due, when it is due and who must authorize it.
08 / The operating year
Eighty weeks that needed explaining.
Each was investigated from scratch, leaving no reusable record.
The doctrine transfers: one source per fact, one definition per metric, cited answers and recorded decisions. Models beyond one operator portfolio are designed, not yet proven in production.
Installation facilities. The same constant, the sharpest version. A path, not past performance.
A government stakeholder is accountable without running the operator's systems. Where a federal path is required, GSA MAS contract 47QRAA26D0058 is held by Element 29 LLC. No VULCAN deployment exists in that setting today; this is a path, not past performance.
whose record · the asset between windows
The building is theirs. So is the record of everything that happened inside it.
09 / The 90-day forge
One portfolio. One question. Ninety days.
Measured against a matched control, with the window and limits published beside the result.
10 / Sovereignty
Seven layers. Your operating record stays yours.
PRINCIPLE
- 01 / Data boundary
- 02 / Compute and runtime
- 03 / Model choice
- 04 / Semantic definitions
- 05 / Governed workflows
- 06 / Decision rights
- 07 / Operating record
Design commitments. Ownership, data location, retention, model use, approval and export are defined in engagement terms. The detailed authority is the Sovereignty page.
Review the seven layers and terms →11 / Appendix and start
Technical blueprint
The full technical blueprint is available under appropriate terms. It covers definitions, boundaries, delivery gates, source notes and the governed object model.
Start
Start with one decision.
We will scope the first governed decision with you: the question, the evidence it needs, the baseline, and how we will know it improved.
Built for platforms running 10k+ facilities or units · 2+ ownership models · 5+ systems in the decision path · 4+ transitions a year.