Custom Software Built Around Your Business
Ridgeline builds internal tools, dashboards, data apps, Chrome extensions, and websites with frontier AI coding tools. You get software shaped around how your business runs, in a GitHub repository you own.
Software Zach Has Built and Shipped
Ridgeline is led by founder Zach Pace, an AI engineer. He has written and shipped more than 64,000 lines of code across 13 projects using AI coding tools.
Zach started building with AI at the beginning of 2026, moving from browser tools like Replit to Claude Code in the terminal, with several AI agents working in parallel. Starting at the front of this shift means every project is built with the tools and workflows available today.
The same workflow builds Ridgeline's custom websites.
Growing businesses outgrow off-the-shelf software.
At some point, the tools you rent stop fitting the way you work. Custom software used to mean a choice between a large agency budget with months of waiting, or more payroll hours spent on repetitive work. Here's what that looks like:
The same data gets typed into three different systems
Dashboards show everything except the numbers leadership needs
Chains of automation tools break without warning, and nobody notices for weeks
Monthly software bills keep growing for features you barely use
Quotes for custom software start in the tens of thousands, with months before a first version
A focused custom tool can remove the bottleneck for good, and it stays yours.
Three Ways to Get Custom Software
Most businesses weigh a traditional development agency against no-code automation tools. AI engineering sits between them.
| Feature | Traditional dev agency | No-code automation | Ridgeline AI engineering |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it's built | Hand-coded by a layered team | Drag-and-drop tools like Zapier and Make | AI coding tools, directed and tested by an AI engineer |
| Typical cost | $50,000–$150,000+ | $2,500–$5,000 setup, plus monthly fees | $4,500–$12,500 flat fee |
| Timeline | 3–6 months to a first version | 1–2 weeks, limited to prebuilt connectors | 2–4 weeks from scope to launch |
| Code ownership | Yours, but often complex to maintain | Workflows live on rented platforms | Yours, in your GitHub organization |
| Running costs | Servers, databases, and developer upkeep | Usage fees that climb with volume | Low-cost hosting on Cloudflare |
| When something changes | Change orders and sprint approvals | Can break silently when an app updates | Tested code that's simple to update |
| Search and performance | Rarely built with SEO in mind | Doesn't affect your website | Built by an SEO specialist |
| Risk | Formal warranties, priced in | Little accountability when things break | Experimental, with clear limits in writing |
Four Kinds of AI Engineering Work
Internal tools and dashboards
Quoting and estimating tools built on your pricing rules, dashboards that pull only the numbers leadership needs from your CRM, search, or accounting data, and scripts that take over repetitive work like cross-checking spreadsheets or pulling weekly reports.
Website rebuilds
Slow, plugin-heavy WordPress or Webflow sites rebuilt as fast static Astro sites on Cloudflare, with your content and URLs carried over. Plain HTML is easy for Google and AI crawlers to read. An optional editor handles blog posts and updates. See custom websites
Data apps, Chrome extensions, and iOS tools
Standalone tools like TrailBlaze and CollegeTrends: browser extensions for your staff or customers, interactive data visualizations, and simple iPhone and iPad apps for field teams.
AI engineering training
Hands-on sessions that set your team up with Claude Code, Git, and the terminal, and teach the context files, workflows, and security habits they need to build their own tools.
Build What Moves the Business
Custom software is worth building when it removes a real constraint. Before writing any code, we look at how your business runs and ask three questions:
- Revenue. Will this tool bring in revenue, capture demand, or help win clients?
- Time. Will it give senior people back hours spent on repetitive work?
- Advantage. Will it give you a capability competitors don't have, or let you charge more?
If the answer to all three is no, we'll recommend you skip the build.
An Experimental Service With Clear Limits
Zach is an AI engineer. He directs frontier AI models to write code, then reviews, tests, and deploys it. He doesn't have a traditional computer science background. AI-written code can hide edge cases, so this service is offered as experimental, and the service agreement limits liability for downstream errors and platform changes.
Outside the scope
Projects we don't take on
Medical or life-critical systems
Payment processing or regulated banking software
Projects that need enterprise SLAs or formal software warranties
Builds run by a large engineering committee
A strong fit
Where AI engineering shines
Internal business and productivity tools
Reporting and data dashboards
Data extraction and analysis
Chrome extensions and SEO tools
Marketing websites
Teams ready to test, give feedback, and iterate
A Build Sprint, Week by Week
-
1Week 1
Scope and design
- Bottleneck review and technical spec
- Database design and API access
- Wireframes and user flows
-
2Weeks 2–3
Build
- Code built with Claude Code in the terminal
- API integrations such as OpenAI, Anthropic, search tools, and Stripe
- Testing, error logging, and responsive design
-
3Week 4
Launch and handoff
- Deployment to Cloudflare or Vercel
- Testing on desktop, tablet, and phone
- Repository transferred to your GitHub
- Recorded walkthrough and documentation
Bugs, broken connections, and deployment errors within the original scope are fixed for 30 days after launch.
The Toolkit
A lean, modern stack chosen for reliability, speed on the page, and low running costs:
TypeScript and JavaScript
Astro
Python
Swift for iOS
SQL and PostgreSQL
HTML and CSS
Cloudflare Pages, Workers, and D1
GitHub and GitHub Actions
Supabase
Vercel, Railway, and Google Cloud
Claude Code in the terminal
OpenAI, Anthropic, Ahrefs, Semrush, and QuickBooks APIs
Two Ways to Work Together
Have Ridgeline build the tool for you, or train your team to build their own.
Custom AI Build Sprint
Software built and launched for you
Scoping, data modeling, and wireframes
Full build with API integrations
Testing across desktop, tablet, and phone
Deployment to Cloudflare or Vercel
Code transferred to your GitHub
Recorded walkthrough and documentation
30 days of post-launch fixes
AI Engineering Training Sprint
Your team learns to build with AI
Terminal, Git, and Claude Code setup, with secure API key handling
Context files and clear specs, including voice dictation with Wispr Flow
Building a real internal tool together, with parallel AI agents
Deploying to Cloudflare and Supabase, plus team guidelines and guardrails
Async code review between sessions
Ridgeline prompts, templates, and SOPs
Frequently Asked Questions
A traditional software engineer writes most code by hand. An AI engineer defines the business logic and architecture, directs AI coding models to write the code, then reviews, tests, and assembles it into a working system. The judgment about what to build, and whether it works, stays with a person.
It means this service uses frontier AI tools to build custom software, and it's scoped and priced with that in mind. The work is limited to internal tools, dashboards, data and content tools, Chrome extensions, and marketing websites. We don't build medical, life-critical, or regulated financial systems, and the service agreement sets clear limits on liability.
API keys and credentials never go in the code. They live in encrypted environment variables in your GitHub and Cloudflare accounts. For business data, we use the Anthropic and OpenAI APIs, whose commercial terms say customer data isn't used to train their models.
You do. After final payment, the repository moves to your company's GitHub organization, along with the deployment setup on Cloudflare, Supabase, or Vercel. There are no licensing fees.
Yes. We can rebuild it as a static Astro site on Cloudflare, keeping your design, content, and URL structure so your search rankings carry over. Pages load faster, there are no plugins to patch, and hosting costs drop. See custom websites for a done-for-you option.
Every build sprint includes 30 days of fixes for bugs, broken connections, or deployment errors within the original scope. After that, your team can maintain the code, book support hours, or set up a light monthly maintenance plan.
