PermiZen

PermiZen started from a real frustration: building permit documents are written for lawyers and bureaucrats, not for the homeowners and contractors who actually need to understand them.

What it does

You upload or photograph a permit document. The app extracts the key requirements, translates the jargon into plain English, and organizes them by stage of the project. It flags the things you actually need to do vs. the boilerplate.

How it works

The core is a multi-step document pipeline:

1. OCR pass to extract text (Vision framework for on-device, server-side for complex layouts)
2. Structure extraction — identifying sections, requirements, dates, and conditions
3. Semantic compression — summarizing without losing critical details
4. Plain-language rewrite — targeted at a non-specialist reader

The rewrite step is the hardest part. Permit language has specific legal meaning; simplifying it too aggressively creates liability issues. The prompting is careful.

Current state

Live on the App Store. 200+ active users. Working on contractor-specific features.