Linting for dopamine loops

⚡ The Signal

If you are building consumer tech, the engagement playbook of the last decade is officially a regulatory liability. Variable reward loops, infinite scroll, and gamified streaks—the very mechanics growth hackers spent years perfecting—are now in the crosshairs of global watchdogs.

The most prominent shot across the bow came recently with the EU's escalating probe into Meta over addictive designs that target younger users. Regulators are no longer just looking at data privacy and cookie banners. They are auditing the cognitive architecture of your product. For product teams, waiting until after launch to find out if your UX violates international child-safety laws is a million-dollar gamble. Compliance must shift left.

🚧 The Problem

Right now, product compliance is completely reactive. Designers craft high-fidelity interfaces in Figma, developers translate them into code, and legal teams only review the product when it is practically ready for production.

Existing compliance software like OneTrust is built for privacy policies and consent management, not user interface logic. There is no automated bridge between the designer’s canvas, the developer's pull request, and the legal team's compliance checklist. If an engineer ships an infinite scroll component or a manipulative daily-streak notification to users in restricted jurisdictions, the mistake is usually caught only after a regulator knocks on the door.

🚀 The Solution

Ethos is an automated visual compliance engine that flags addictive dark patterns and child-safety violations before they ever reach production.

By integrating directly into the tools your team already uses, Ethos continuously analyzes your interface designs and frontend code against a global database of safety regulations. It acts as an automated linchpin between design, engineering, and legal, ensuring that every user flow is compliant by design.

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💰 The Business Case

Revenue Model

Ethos monetization targets the entire product delivery pipeline:

• SaaS Team Tier: A monthly subscription for product and engineering teams, priced on the number of active code repositories monitored and Figma editor seats.
• CI/CD Enterprise Tier: A premium tier for larger organizations that unlocks custom compliance rulesets, single sign-on, and hard-blocking capabilities on GitHub pull requests.
• Compliance Reports: A pay-per-export model for verified, legal-grade compliance logs and PDF audits that startups can submit directly to regulatory bodies.

Go-To-Market

To capture the developer and designer workflows early, Ethos deploys a three-pronged distribution strategy:

• The Minor Safety Grader: A free Figma plugin that scans static design files and instantly scores them on child-safety metrics, offering alternative, compliant UI layout suggestions.
• Open-Source Linters: A free ESLint plugin (eslint-plugin-minor-safety) that scans React Native and React codebases to flag common addictive code patterns, routing developers to the paid Ethos cloud for broader testing.
• Programmatic SEO: Highly targeted compliance guides answering specific technical queries, such as "How to comply with EU DSA Article 28 in SwiftUI" or "AADC-compliant daily streak alternatives."

⚔️ The Moat

Traditional compliance tools are blind to the frontend layout. Security platforms like Vanta check your server infrastructure, and performance linters like Lighthouse check your page speed. Neither can tell you if your gamification system is psychologically manipulative.

Ethos's unfair advantage lies in its workflow lock-in. By embedding itself as a blocking check inside both Figma and GitHub pull requests, Ethos becomes a core part of the release cycle. Once a legal department signs off on an automated Ethos workflow, replacing it means entirely rebuilding the company’s regulatory compliance pipeline.

⏳ Why Now

The regulatory winds have permanently shifted. As evidenced by the EU's intensified probe into Meta, governments are willing to fine platforms billions for behavioral manipulation.

At the same time, the broader cultural conversation around software safety is reaching a fever pitch. Digital experiences are embedding themselves deeper into the lives of teenagers, prompting schools and parent associations to actively construct new institutional policies to manage digital exposure. Building ethical software is no longer a public relations choice; it is a baseline requirement for market access.

🛠️ Builder's Corner

To build an MVP of Ethos in a weekend sprint, you can construct a lightweight, hybrid architecture focused on code and design parsing.

On the client side, the design-level engine can be built as a TypeScript CLI tool and Figma plugin. To inspect codebase files, you can use Tree-sitter node bindings to parse React Native, SwiftUI, and HTML files into Abstract Syntax Trees. This allows you to programmatically identify code blocks that generate infinite scrolls, custom repetitive notifications, or complex reward logic.

This local parser then sends metadata payloads to a lightweight FastAPI backend built with Python. The backend cross-references the parsed UI patterns against a localized SQLite database of global compliance rules and serves up compliant alternative layout structures in real-time. This provides a fast, zero-maintenance architecture that demonstrates instant value to product teams.

Legal Disclaimer: GammaVibe is provided for inspiration only. The ideas and names suggested have not been vetted for viability, legality, or intellectual property infringement (including patents and trademarks). This is not financial or legal advice. Always perform your own due diligence and clearance searches before executing on any concept.