The text discusses the design principles and values guiding the development of Earthly, a build automation tool, emphasizing versatility, approachability, and reproducibility as its core values. Inspired by Bryan Cantrill's insights on platform values, Earthly aims to simplify build processes by replacing CI scripts and fostering ease of use while maintaining compatibility with various tools without being overly complex. The tool prioritizes user respect, speed, and consistency of experience, deliberately sacrificing expressiveness, velocity, and being opinionated to focus on repeatability and adaptability in diverse development environments. Despite not achieving full reproducibility, Earthly provides container isolation for more consistent execution, balancing ease of onboarding with maintaining a stable build environment. These guiding principles are intended to help both the Earthly community and potential users evaluate the tool's suitability for their needs.