A knowledge layer for classification rules
A class society’s rules are its core. Searching them, cross-referencing them across SOLAS / MARPOL, keeping them current with IMO change — this work absorbs surveyor and rule-editor time every day.
This page documents two patterns: a Rule Finder (search, cross-reference, citation) and a Rule Change-Tracker (watch IMO publications and surface affected rules). Both run on the same orchestration substrate.
Rule Finder
A natural-language search agent over a corpus of rules. A surveyor or rule editor asks a question; the agent returns relevant clauses with citations to chapter, paragraph, and source document. Every claim is grounded in the corpus; nothing is invented.
For this meeting, the agent reads over a working corpus of 10,000+ pages of Class NK rules (converted to markdown), plus SOLAS, MARPOL, and public IMO source documents. The demo runs live in the room.
Example questions the agent handles
- “What does Class NK require for ballast water management on a 15,000 DWT tanker?”
- “What are the fire safety requirements for a tanker carrying methanol?”
- “What does SOLAS say about emergency generator testing intervals, and does Class NK have its own variant?”
- “Show me all rules referencing ‘ballast water exchange’ across SOLAS, MARPOL, and Class NK.”
What this kind of capability changes
- A surveyor question that takes 20 minutes against PDFs becomes a 30-second query with citations
- A rule editor cross-referencing SOLAS, MARPOL, and Class NK can see the linkage in one view
- New surveyors get a faster path from question to source
DNV launched a similar capability — RuleAgent — in March 2026, working over their own rule corpus. The pattern is becoming familiar in the industry. What an instance looks like on Class NK’s own rules is what this demo shows.
What’s working today vs what would extend
The working corpus + the agent are demoable today. To grow into a Class NK-deployed tool would mean:
- Discussing which additional rule chapters to ingest beyond the working subset
- Defining a corpus refresh cadence as Class NK rules update
- Considering integration into Class NK’s existing surveyor workflow tools
- Following Class NK’s existing process for assessing technology candidates
The orchestration substrate handles the rest.
Rule Change-Tracker
A natural extension on top of the Rule Finder. When IMO publishes an amendment to SOLAS or MARPOL — or a sub-committee circulates a proposed change — affected national class rules need to be updated. Today this happens through committees, paper trails, and human cross-referencing.
An agent chain can handle the routine work end-to-end:
IMO publication │ ▼┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐│ Monitor │ ───▶ │ Analyzer │ ───▶ │ Drafter ││ agent │ │ agent │ │ agent │└──────────────┘ └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ Watches IMO Identifies which Drafts the publications, Class NK rules proposed rule sub-committee reference the update text, in circulars. changed clause. red-line format. │ ▼ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ │ Editor │ ◀── ─── │ Rule editor │ │ routing │ │ (human) │ └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘ │ │ ▼ ▼ Routes to the Reviews, edits, rule editor approves or responsible for amends. that chapter. │ ▼ ┌──────────────┐ │ Audit │ │ logger │ └──────────────┘What changes: the first internal review of an IMO amendment can happen in hours rather than weeks. Rule editors get a starting draft to react to, not a blank page. The audit trail shows every IMO change and how the response was assembled.
Why the two together
- Rule Finder is the natural surface for surveyors and clients — search what exists
- Change-Tracker is the natural surface for rule editors — keep what exists current with regulatory change
- Both share the same indexed corpus, so an answer to a surveyor’s question can naturally include both the current rule and any pending amendments flagged by the change-tracker
A surveyor asks the Rule Finder a question; the answer cites the current rule and notes any IMO amendment in flight that might affect it. The orchestration layer makes this single linked workflow possible.