Your information is too important for PowerPoint.
Business Primitives defines the atomic building blocks of business communication — decisions, metrics, risks, actions, timelines, statuses, stakeholders — as structured, format-agnostic, composable units.
Inspired by Brad Frost's Atomic Design, Atomic Business Design applies the same layered composition model to business information:
| Level | Atomic Design (Web) | Atomic Business Design |
|---|---|---|
| Atoms | Button, Label, Input | Decision, Metric, Risk, Action, Timeline, Status, Stakeholder, Objective |
| Molecules | Search Form, Card | Argument, Comparison, Status Update, Progress, OKR, Briefing |
| Organisms | Header, Product Grid | Executive Summary, Risk Register, Action Plan, Performance Dashboard |
| Templates | Product Page Layout | Decision Paper, Quarterly Review, Weekly Status |
| Pages | Actual Product Page | Q1 2026 Review, Project X Decision Paper |
Every organization communicates with the same building blocks. But nobody has defined them.
- Format silos — Information is trapped in PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Miro. Not reusable. Not machine-readable.
- Inconsistency — Every presentation is a snowflake. No design system. No standards.
- Low information density — Slides full of bullet points. No visual design. No data-ink ratio.
- Person-dependent — Only the creator understands the slide. No structured data behind it.
- AI-blind — LLMs can barely parse PowerPoint. Structured primitives they can.
| Primitive | Description | Key Fields |
|---|---|---|
| Decision | Who decided what, when, why | decided_by, title, decided_date, status, rationale |
| Metric | Number with context and trend | name, value, unit, trend, period/as_of, target |
| Risk | Assessed risk with mitigation | threat, probability, impact, owner, mitigation |
| Action | Task with ownership | owner, title, due_date, status, priority, completed_date |
| Timeline | Milestone with dependencies | milestone, target_date, owner, dependencies, status |
| Status | State assessment of an entity | entity, state, detail, updated_at, previous_state |
| Stakeholder | Person with influence and stance | name, role, influence, stance, interests |
| Objective | Declared goal with timeframe | title, timeframe, owner, status, success_criteria |
| Primitive | Description | Composition |
|---|---|---|
| Argument | Claim + Evidence + Implication | claim, evidence[], implication, confidence |
| Comparison | Options + Criteria + Recommendation | question, options[], criteria[], recommendation |
| Status Update | Metric + Trend + Assessment | metric, trend, assessment, action_needed, actions |
| Progress | Checkpoint + Velocity + Forecast | checkpoint, milestones[], metrics[], next_actions[] |
| OKR | Objective + Key Results | objective, key_results[], overall_progress, confidence |
| Briefing | Recommendation-first executive summary | subject, situation, significance, recommendation, urgency |
The full specification lives in spec/bp-v1.1.md (current) and spec/bp-v1.0.md (foundation). V1.1 defines:
- 7 design principles
- 8 atoms and 6 molecules with field-level definitions
- 5 organism patterns and 5 templates
- A composition model (inline, reference, hybrid, collection)
- 29 validation rules and 4 conformance levels
- Rendering hints for display tools
- A shared enum registry and cross-reference system
- Bidirectional connection to the OPI Spec
JSON Schemas for automated validation: spec/bp-v1.1.schema.json | spec/bp-v1.0.schema.json
spec/
├── bp-v1.1.md # Current specification
├── bp-v1.1.schema.json # JSON Schema (V1.1)
├── bp-v1.0.md # Foundation specification
├── bp-v1.0.schema.json # JSON Schema (V1.0)
├── atoms/ # 8 atom definitions (YAML)
│ ├── action.yaml
│ ├── decision.yaml
│ ├── metric.yaml
│ ├── objective.yaml
│ ├── risk.yaml
│ ├── stakeholder.yaml
│ ├── status.yaml
│ └── timeline.yaml
└── molecules/ # 6 molecule definitions (YAML)
├── argument.yaml
├── briefing.yaml
├── comparison.yaml
├── okr.yaml
├── progress.yaml
└── status-update.yaml
examples/ # Real-world document compositions
├── decision-paper.yaml
└── quarterly-review.yaml
templates/ # Template definitions
├── decision-paper.yaml
├── quarterly-review.yaml
└── weekly-status.yaml
Business Primitives is the communication layer. Org as Code is the structural layer. Together, they make organizations legible — their structures and their information.
A decision in OPI (Organizational Programming Interface) is simultaneously a Decision Primitive. The systems share the same data.
Prism is the open-source rendering engine for Business Primitives. Write your content as YAML, render it as HTML in five profiles: Card, Slide, Doc, Table, Board.
python prism.py build --profile card examples/decision-paper.yamlV1.1 (current) — 8 atoms, 6 molecules, 5 organisms, 5 templates. New: Objective, OKR, Briefing. Rendering hints. Collection documents. 29 validation rules. Backward compatible with V1.0.
V1.0 — Foundation release. 7 atoms, 4 molecules, 4 organisms, 3 templates. JSON Schema. 26 validation rules.
Website live at businessprimitives.com.
Andreas Siemes — andreassiemes.de · Business Primitives · Org as Code · Prism · LinkedIn
MIT