⚙️ EIP · COBOL Legacy Intelligence

Your COBOL isn't dead weight.
It's institutional memory.

Elder reads your COBOL source — decades of business logic, encoded in programs nobody fully understands anymore — and makes it navigable, documentable, and modernizable. Without a rewrite, without the risk.

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Starting From
$9,999
License · one-time
Get Licensed Full Implementation →
Annual support available · $7,200/yr
$3T+
COBOL processes annually in financial systems worldwide
800B
Lines of active COBOL in production — more than any other language
72%
Of Fortune 500 companies running mission-critical COBOL workloads
The Problem

Nobody understands your COBOL anymore.

The people who wrote it retired. The documentation was never written. The business logic is real — it runs your payroll, your GL, your order system — but it's trapped in programs nobody dares touch.

👴
The Knowledge Has Left the Building
The developers who wrote these programs retired in the 2000s. Their tribal knowledge went with them. What's left are programs that work but nobody can fully explain why — and everyone is afraid to change.
🔒
Modernization Projects Keep Failing
Every attempted rewrite has discovered the same thing: the COBOL does far more than anyone realized. Business rules buried five levels deep. Edge cases that only surface years into a project. $50M modernization projects cancelled.
🕵️
Audit and Compliance Exposure
Your auditors ask what the system does. You describe it at a high level. Nobody can actually trace the business logic path from input to output. SOX, banking regulations, insurance filings — all depending on code you can't fully explain.
🧱
New Systems Can't Integrate
Your modern SaaS stack needs to connect to your COBOL core. But there's no documentation, no API contract, no interface spec. Every integration is a research project. Every change is a risk.
What Elder Does

Six AI tools that decode your legacy.

Elder connects to your COBOL source, reads the programs, and builds a navigable model of your business logic — without running anything, without touching production.

🔍
analyze_program_structure
Parses COBOL source into its structural elements: DATA DIVISION fields, PROCEDURE DIVISION paragraphs, PERFORM chains, and COPY members. Returns a navigable program map with cross-references.
📖
extract_business_rules
Identifies conditional logic, calculation routines, and validation rules embedded in COBOL code. Translates EVALUATE/PERFORM structures into plain-language business rule descriptions.
🗺️
map_data_flows
Traces every data field from its source through transformations to its output. Generates field-level lineage maps that show exactly what touches your data and in what order.
📋
generate_documentation
Produces structured documentation from COBOL source: program summaries, business rule catalogs, input/output specifications, and interface contracts suitable for audit review.
⚠️
identify_risk_patterns
Flags high-risk patterns: unreferenced dead code, undocumented date logic, implicit field truncations, hardcoded values, and coupling patterns that will cause modernization failures.
🚀
generate_migration_roadmap
Analyzes program complexity, coupling, and business criticality to generate a sequenced modernization roadmap. Identifies which programs can be replaced safely first and which must wait.
How It Works

Read-only. On-premises. Zero risk.

Elder never writes to your systems. It reads COBOL source files — the same files you already have — and builds its understanding locally. Your code never leaves your environment.

COBOL Source Files
└── *.CBL / *.COB / *.CPY
│
Elder Parser (local)
├── Program structure analysis
├── Business rule extraction
└── Data flow mapping
│
Knowledge Graph (local DuckDB)
└── Programs → rules → fields
│
MCP Interface
└── AI agents query locally
✓
Source files only — no mainframe access required
Elder works from COBOL source files exported to disk. No mainframe connectivity, no production access, no risk to running systems.
✓
Data sovereignty — nothing leaves your environment
All analysis runs locally. Your COBOL source — which encodes your competitive advantage — stays on your hardware.
✓
Incrementally adoptable — one program at a time
Start with your highest-risk programs. Build confidence. Expand scope. No big-bang commitment required.
Business Value

What understanding your COBOL actually saves.

Modernization project that actually succeeds instead of being cancelled at $40M
$40M+
Failed project avoided
Audit response time reduced from weeks to days — compliance team freed from manual code archaeology
80%
Faster audit response
Integration project scoped in weeks instead of months — every interface documented before work starts
6mo → 6wk
Integration scoping
Dead code identified and decommissioned — reduces test surface, compliance scope, and mainframe MIPS
30–40%
Dead code eliminated
Pricing

Four tiers. One outcome.

Start with the license and analyze your first programs this week. Engage us for full implementation when you're ready to move your entire portfolio.

Tier 1
License
$9,999
one-time
Elder software license, 6 MCP tools, local deployment package, documentation, and 90-day email support. You install, you run.
Get License
Tier 2 · Most Common
Setup + Integration
$30,000
one-time
License plus guided deployment: COBOL parser configuration for your dialects, knowledge graph build for your program inventory, AI agent integration, and team onboarding.
Start Setup
Tier 3
Full Implementation
From $70K
scoped engagement
Full program portfolio analysis, business rule extraction and documentation, modernization roadmap, integration specifications, and executive-ready deliverables for board / auditor presentation.
Scope Project
Annual Support
Maintenance + Updates
$7,200
per year
Version updates, COBOL dialect additions, priority support, and quarterly check-ins. Recommended for organizations actively using Elder in compliance workflows.
Add Support
Why SaaSquach

Built by people who've been in the room.

We didn't build Elder by reading about COBOL modernization. We built it after watching enterprise projects fail the same way — for the same reasons — for twenty years.

🏭
Operator Background, Not Vendor Background
Our founders ran supply chains and finance operations at Fortune 200 scale. We know what it looks like when a COBOL modernization project fails — we've lived the fallout. That perspective is baked into Elder's design.
🔐
Data Sovereignty is Non-Negotiable
Your COBOL source encodes competitive advantage built over decades. Elder is the only COBOL intelligence product that keeps all analysis local. No cloud uploads. No SaaS dependencies. Full control.
📐
MCP-Native Architecture
Elder exposes its knowledge graph through the Model Context Protocol — the emerging standard for AI-to-data connectivity. Your AI agents can query Elder's understanding of your COBOL directly, in natural language, in real time.
🎯
Incrementally Adoptable
No commitment to a full portfolio analysis on day one. Start with the programs you're most concerned about. Build confidence. The license doesn't expire and the scope doesn't have to be defined upfront.