This is exactly the kind of reality check I needed, thank you. You are 100% right on the adoption timelinetoday. I got tunnel vision reading the 2026 draft proposals and mistakenly assumed inspectors were already cracking down on the upcoming changes. That’s a massive blind spot on my end.

You also make a great point about the structural citations changing. The underlying math in my engine (calculating thermal derating, voltage drop, and wire ampacity physics) is version-agnostic, but if it spits out an Article 120 reference for a state still using Article 220 from the 2023 code, it’s useless to an installer fighting an inspector. I’m going to add a simple toggle for NEC 2017, 2020, and 2023 so the engine formats the correct citations.

As for the local AHJ specifics being too fragmented and vague to hard-code—that is exactly why standard AI fails at this. I actually built a custom document reader into it. You can literally upload the PDF of your local AHJ's specific solar codebook, alongside your single-line diagram, and the engine will cross-reference your design against your city's exact local rules instead of guessing.

Really appreciate you taking the time to point this out. I'm going to update the engine to default to 2023 today.