A better front end for the whole laser shop.

Why ALPS

ALPS is the software layer of the Synergy customer relationship: it starts as a better Job Manager for every Epilog customer and grows into the front end for any laser in a mixed shop. The load-bearing claims, each backed by a shipped feature below:

• Workflow-first, skill-tiered — one interface that scales from a nervous beginner (🟢 guided pick-material→preview→send, the Design Builder) to a power user (◆ kerf, tabs, vector sorting, variable data) without either getting in the other's way. Job Manager has nothing like it.
• "Job Manager lets one person see the bed. ALPS lets your whole shop." Epilog's camera is single-viewer by hardware; ALPS re-publishes it shop-wide with zero added hardware.
• A coordinate system, not a picture. Epilog's camera calibration gives an overlay you can look at; ALPS's produces numbers you can compute with — measured on a real Ascent: ALPS's own optics averaged 5 thou vs 38 thou through the laser's built-in correction.
• Byte-exactness is the whole product. The encoder is verified byte-identical against captured Epilog Job Manager output — not "compatible", identical.
• The distributor play: Bed Self-Calibration measures the MACHINE ("this bed bows 0.4 mm at the corners") — commissioning proof at handover, service visits that arrive with a measurement instead of an opinion. Epilog's software will never tell a customer that.
• The blank-page cure: "A beginner's problem is the blank page, not the button count" — the Design Builder answers 3–6 plain questions and produces ~90% of a burnable design.
• Agent-ready by design (decision 067, Jon): ALPS is file-first on purpose — Drop folder, printer intake, documented-JSON .alpsjob — so when customers' AI agents start driving design software, ALPS is the laser app they can drive without screen-scraping. Deliberate stance, not an accident.