Software that works the way you do
When off-the-shelf doesn’t fit, we build one that does. Built on the platform, modular from the start.
A separate engagement from the audit, and most audits don’t lead to a build at all.
Design
Most of a build happens before anyone writes a line
The failure I see most often is not a tool that does not work. It is a tool that works, does the wrong job, and everybody keeps pretending for a year.
So the design is where the time goes. These are the questions I ask before deciding what to build.
Decide which work is which, before anything else
Every recurring task lands in one of four places.
A machine runs it; a machine drafts and a person signs; a person keeps it; or it works and you leave it alone.Design from where a wrong answer gets caught
You catch a misrouted email in seconds; you cannot recall a letter once it has gone out.
Those two look equally automatable from outside and get completely different designs.Put the person where the judgement is
Sign-off bolted onto the end becomes a rubber stamp inside a fortnight.
The human step goes where the judgement is, carrying what the system used and what it left out.Nothing invented, and nothing silently blank
Where the sources do not answer something, the system says so and waits for a person.
It never guesses, and it never quietly drops the field either.A correction teaches it, its output never does
When somebody fixes a value, that is evidence and we keep it.
What the system produced itself is not evidence, however confident it sounds.Assume you will want to undo it
We ask every design how easily you could switch it off, and write the answer down before building anything.
Reversible things you can try; irreversible ones must be right first time.
None of those is a position I hold in the abstract. Each one is a rule in something already running, and several are there because the first version did the opposite.
When a build is the right answer
Much of the time a build is the wrong answer. We say so.
A build suits work a machine can do, with a person signing off. We only build what we know we can deliver.
Build
Assembled from the platform, not started from scratch
A build lands in your own account as a product. We put it together out of the same machinery the other products run on, so it takes days instead of months.
What every build comes with
Durable execution
Work survives a restart.
A job that dies halfway gets picked up again and finished, not lost quietly.
Approval gates
Anything risky waits for a person, and shows what it intends to do before it does it.
Verified writes
We read every write back by id and confirm it.
If a write did not land, you hear about it.
Access control
Roles, and which of your data each person may see.
Enforced on the server, not in the interface.
An audit trail
Who did what and when, including what the system refused and why.
Your connections
59 providers built in, and you can add anything with an OAuth API.
You do not commission any of that and you are not billed for it twice. It is there because everything else on the platform needs it too.
How a bespoke build happens
A fixed-scope path from your workflow to a product you own.
1.Scope
We sit down with the actual work.
Inputs, rules, edge cases and what good looks like get agreed up front.2.Build from the products
We assemble it from what is already there.
An agent, operatives, dashboards and tables wired to one job.3.You run it
It lands in your account as a product.
You drive it from the dashboard or plain-language chat.4.It improves
New rules, new inputs, new outputs.
It evolves with your process, without a rebuild.
How you buy it
Pick the shape, not the hours
One job, ongoing capacity, or a day at a time.
Fixed price against a spec
Priced per jobA defined piece of work, quoted once we agree the spec.
Think a workflow or an integration.
- We write the spec with you before quoting
- One price, agreed in writing
- The price does not move unless the spec does
Retainer
MonthlyStanding capacity for teams doing this continuously.
A regular call and hands-on delivery between them.
- An agreed number of days a month
- A named person who knows your systems
- Cancellable, with a month’s notice
Day rate
Per dayBounded help.
A workshop, a technical review, or a second opinion on someone else’s proposal.
- No minimum engagement
- Useful when you already know the question
- Often one day is the whole job
How we price a job
The spec comes before the number
A quote you cannot check is a quote you cannot argue with.
1.You describe the job
What comes in, what should come out, and what counts as done.
A call is usually enough.2.We write the spec
In plain English, including what is out of scope.
You read it back and correct it.3.We quote against it
One price for a fixed job, or a day count for a retainer.
Always in writing.4.The price holds
If the job turns out harder than we thought, that is our problem.
It moves only when the spec moves.
Why build it on Opafex
A bespoke build here isn’t a throwaway script. It stands on the same production platform we run everything else on.
- Grounded, not guessing
- It verifies every write against real results.
It asks before anything risky. - Made of the same products
- A build can carry an agent, operatives and dashboards inside it.
It inherits durable execution, connection health and the knowledge grid. - Connects to what you already use
- 59 providers come built in, and we connect any system with an OAuth API.
REST, MCP and SDK bridges cover the rest. - Evolves without a rewrite
- Change the house style, add a data source or adjust the rules.
The build adapts without starting over.
What can be built
- Document formatterLive
- Learns a firm’s house style and reformats any document into it.
Proven on real client documents, and exports polished DOCX and PDF. - A CRM shaped to your pipeline
- Your stages, your fields and your rules.
The agent keeps it current. - Client-reporting console
- Per-client dashboards and reports generated on request from your connected tools and data.
- Inventory / operations console
- Structured tables, scheduled checks, and event triggers that keep stock and orders moving.
- Document pipeline for any doc type
- Contracts, proposals and reports come in.
They go back out in your standard format.
Not on the list? That’s the point of bespoke. Tell us what you need.
How the two fit together
The design decides what should happen. The platform decides what it costs to change your mind.
A design that takes three months to alter has to be right up front, so it comes out cautious. One you can alter in an afternoon can afford to be ambitious.
Assembling from parts that already exist is what buys that. Moving the human step or changing the house style is configuration, not a rewrite.
It also means the expensive half is the thinking, and the thinking is the half you keep. We fix scope before we start, so a harder build than expected is my problem.
The audit asks this same question across a whole business instead of one workflow. Most audits end without a build, which is the honest outcome more often than the market admits.
Case studies
Builds running today
The full page shows how each one works and the decisions that mattered. Names, templates, rules and data stay withheld.
- Incoming documents into the firm’s house formatProfessional services firm
- Answers from the rulebook or says it cannotSpecialist supplier
- Running the company from one pageFinance & Operations
Bespoke builds
Related
Four ways to build or buy AI
Build versus buy hides two better options. The choice has four moves, and the cheapest is often the one without AI.
The Opafex platform
The engine the agent, the chatbot and the field apps run on.
Opafex integrations
Salesforce, HubSpot and Xero. Plus REST and MCP bridges for the rest.
Bespoke builds
Describe the tool you wish you had
Tell us the workflow that eats your time.
We quote a fixed price and build a product you own.