Generic doc tools were never designed for teams building hardware, software, and electronics at once. Requirements live in a deck, the wiring diagram in someone's Drive, the current spec in tab five of a spreadsheet, and none of them agree. They don't talk to each other, they don't know what a component is, and every page is a snapshot that's out of date the day after it's written.

Prototype holds the current version of every spec, component, and interface in one place. Change a parent spec and every part built against it gets marked for review instead of quietly going out of date. Reuse a proven part and it's checked against the limits it was actually qualified for. Approvals, documents, and meetings hang off the same records, not five disconnected tools.

Prototype was built inside a university engineering team. Student teams turn over every year: knowledge walks out the door with every graduating cohort, budgets are restrictive, and you're coordinating serious engineering around lectures and exams. That's exactly the environment this tool was designed for, and the first 20 founding teams get to shape what it becomes.