Blackcipher Search Engine
Our own crawler, inverted index and ranking model — the flagship experiment that became reference architecture for client work.
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Blackcipher Lab
Experiments, tools,
and the future.
The Lab is where we build things nobody commissioned. Some of it ships as a product, some becomes a client solution, and some exists because a problem annoyed us enough to fix it properly.
Category 01
Experimental
Projects
Bigger swings. Things that need real engineering before we know whether they're useful.
Realtime Sync Layer
A lightweight layer for multi-user apps where two people editing the same record must never overwrite each other.
Internal use · under evaluationForm Intelligence
Structured enquiry handling: classify incoming requests, extract budget and timeline automatically, route to the right person.
Prototype stageCategory 02
AI Tools
Applied AI — narrow, measurable, and always with a human in the loop. No magic, no hype.
Support Assistant
Answers product questions from a company's own documentation and escalates to a human with full context.
Document Extractor
Turns invoices, forms and PDFs into structured records a database can query.
Code Review Assistant
Flags risky patterns, missing validation and inconsistent style before a pull request is opened.
Category 03
Developer Tools
Utilities we wanted and couldn't find in a form we liked. Browser-based versions arrive in Phase 3 of the site build — this is the roadmap.
JSON Formatter
Format, validate and compare JSON without pasting client data into someone else's server.
Colour Palette Generator
Build accessible dark-first palettes with contrast checking built in.
API Request Runner
Save, share and re-run API collections as a team, with environment variables.
Schema Designer
Sketch a database schema visually, export migrations for the stack you're using.
Category 04
Future Products
Where the Lab is heading. If one of these is something you'd actually use, tell us — that's how they get prioritised.
Client Portal
Project status, files, invoices and approvals in one login for every Blackcipher client.
Get early access →Deploy Assistant
One-command deployment with backups, health checks and rollback for small teams without a DevOps hire.
Project Estimator
The tool behind our own quotes, opened up: scope a build and see the effort breakdown.