[ Comparison ]
AI code tools have multiplied — but almost all of them review a static drawing set after the work is done. Kestrel checks the model itself, while you design. That difference is the whole game.
[ Three Generations ]
The category has moved through three generations. The first two review documents after the work is done. Only the third works in the model, as you design — and nobody wants to buy last generation’s approach.
Generation 01
[ earlier gen ]Ask a code question, get a cited answer. Genuinely useful — for research. It tells you what the code says; it doesn’t check whether your design meets it. Kestrel Compliance Chat does this too, grounded in your actual project, model, and jurisdiction.
Find and interpret the rule.
Generation 02
[ earlier gen ]Upload a finished set, get back a list of issues — landed on a sheet, not an object. The set is already drawn, the decisions already made, and most of these tools read a flattened PDF. A check at the end, not a way to design.
Review the document, after the fact.
Generation 03
[ now ]Check the design against code inside the model, as you draw it — every issue tied to the building object it lives on, not a page in a PDF, and cited to the section. This is Kestrel: the generation that changes how you design, not just how you check.
The model itself, as you design.
[ The Workflow ]
A code check isn't something you run once before permit — it's something you should run dozens of times throughout design.
The PDF way
[ export · send · pay · repeat ]
The Kestrel way
[ run · see · jump · fix ]
Drawing Review
Kestrel
Reviews a snapshot
Reviews the live model
External workflow
Inside Revit
Report-centric
Element-centric
Review, then fix
Fix while reviewing
Export required
No export
Pay per review
Unlimited reruns
If your compliance workflow starts with a PDF export, you’re reviewing yesterday’s design.
[ Where Kestrel Fits ]
Other AI tools analyze an export. Kestrel analyzes the source of truth.
Kestrel doesn't pick a slice. Compliance Analysis checks the model itself, inside Revit, continuously as you design — every issue tied to the building object it lives on, not a line on a sheet. That's the difference between element-centric and report-centric: a competitor flags a problem on a drawing; Kestrel flags it on the wall, the door, the room. Compliance Chat answers code questions grounded in your project and jurisdiction, cited to source.
Reviewing an uploaded drawing set reviews the output. Kestrel works from the model — the source of truth — and you fix issues in place, not off a list of markups. The model is where the work actually happens, and that's where we work.
And Kestrel is deliberately not an AI that asks you to take its word. Every result is deterministically verified and carries a citation you can check — because a permit is no place for a confident guess. We wrote about where that line sits: Where AI doesn't belong →
[ What the industry press says ]
“While other AI code tools exist, Kestrel’s solution puts their compliance engine directly inside the design and documentation environment, whilst also having an intelligent web-based code analysis space for its users.”
Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA
Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Architosh
“This is a technology that should have been embedded in BIM authoring tools years ago.”
“The code is in the model, visible to everyone, and it does not depend on who is in the room.”
