About Us
Our Mission, Vision, and Values
Who we are
Prairie Code is a software workshop based in Lawrence, Kansas. It is run by Miles Bassett, a software engineer who spent years building systems for Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and international financial institutions before coming home to build for people he could look in the eye.
The workshop exists because most of what passes for software development today is not built to last, not built to serve, and not built to be owned by the people paying for it. We wanted to do the work differently.
So we do.
Our mission
To build software and AI tools that strengthen the people and institutions who use them, with the honesty, durability, and care of old-fashioned craftsmanship.
Our vision
A generation of Kansas and American businesses, labs, and institutions running software they own, understand, and trust. Independent of any single vendor. Built by people accountable to them. Serving humans rather than extracting from them.
How we work
These are the commitments we hold to, on every project, without exception.
Quality over quantity.
We take on fewer projects so we have the time to do each one right. Finished work is finished, including the parts no one will see.
Ethical by construction.
We will not build surveillance tools, dark patterns, attention traps, or systems whose business model depends on degrading the user. We will tell you if what you are asking for crosses that line.
Human-strengthening.
Good software expands what your people can do. It does not replace their judgment or atrophy their skills. AI is a tool in the workshop, not a replacement for the humans you serve.
Built to last.
We build for durability. No planned obsolescence. No dependency on tools we expect to die. Code you can still run and modify in five years.
Independence first.
You own the code, the accounts, the data, and the knowledge. We train your team to operate and extend what we build. Our engagements end by design. If you want us back, you hire us back by choice, not by lock-in.
Platform-agnostic.
We use the best tool for your job, not the tool that pays us a referral. We will tell you when the right answer is an open-source stack you host yourself, and we will set it up that way if it serves you better.
Honest counsel.
We are a partner, not an order-taker. If we think you are about to build the wrong thing, we will say so before we take your money. Sometimes the best advice is to not build anything at all.
Why we work this way
Our standards are rooted in our faith. We are Christians, and we understand our work as service rendered first to God and then to the people He has placed in our care. The old craftsmen finished the hidden joints of a cabinet with the same care as the visible ones, because God sees the whole of the work, and the work is offered to Him. We try to hold to the same standard in software. You will see the results of that conviction whether or not you share it. The quality is the proof.
We know this will not resonate with every client, and that is fine. The clients we are meant to serve will recognize the ethic, even when they come to it from a different tradition. What we promise everyone, regardless of belief, is that the standards are real, they are held consistently, and you will be treated honestly from the first conversation to the last handover.
Who founded this workshop
Miles Bassett is the founder and principal craftsman at Prairie Code. He is also the owner of Wildman Web Solutions, a digital agency serving hundreds of Kansas businesses. He lives on a small farm in the Lawrence, Kansas area with his family, where the days are shaped by work, land, and faith. He speaks and writes on deliberate AI adoption for small businesses and institutions, with recent appearances including the Kansas Economic Outlook Conference.
Let us know what you are building
If your project fits what we do, we would like to hear about it. If it does not, we will say so and try to point you somewhere better. Either way, you will get an honest answer.