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How to turn from a rule of law, i.e. general and impersonal statement, to the individual application of rights? In current bureaucracies, addressing this question require not only to describe the interpretation performed by street-level bureaucrats, but the translation of the rules to computer programs that automatically carry out acts on a massive scale, such as the calculation of social benefits or taxation. Drawing on a retro-engineering investigation on the program that compute housing benefits in France and interviews, the article highlights the tasks performed in departments and the National Family Allowance Fund: passes and translation of the law. By pointing to a phenomenon of alteration of legal statements towards a technological agencing, it draws the attention to underestimated consequences of choices of interpretation and organization, before calling for new collaborations with computer scientists.