Software engineering, end to end.
Brightwork Digital is an engineering studio based in East Nashville. We design, build and run the systems a business depends on: data models, APIs, integrations and the infrastructure underneath them.
Working with clients across the United States and South Africa.
The stack
Most of our systems share this architecture. Follow one request through it, or select a layer for detail.
Selected systems
Live, or in final build ahead of launch. Our own product, Shelf Help, runs on the same principles.
Standards
What we hold our systems to.
- Requirements
- On our larger platforms, numbered requirements, each traced to the tests that cover it.
- Testing
- Automated tests on every change, browser tests every night. A failing build doesn't ship.
- Releases
- Automated and health-checked. A release that fails its checks rolls itself back.
- Access
- Role-based and enforced on the server, not just hidden on screen.
- Audit
- Significant actions are written to a log that can't be edited.
- Data
- Encrypted in transit, and stored in the country the law requires.
- Backups
- Automated, with restores rehearsed.
- Ownership
- Your data is always yours. On commissioned builds, so are the code and documentation.
The team
You work with the engineers who build the system, not an account manager.
Working together
An NDA comes first. Fixed prices, agreed in writing.
- 1
Scope
We map the work and the data, and agree what to build and what it costs.
- 2
Build
Working software every week, on a staging server you can use.
- 3
Run
Hosting, monitoring and support after launch, month to month.
Questions
Straight answers to what clients ask first.
What do you build?
Custom business systems: databases, APIs, back-office tools, client portals and the integrations between them, and the infrastructure they run on.
Which technologies do you use?
TypeScript, React and Next.js for interfaces; Python with Django, or Node, on the server; PostgreSQL for data; Celery and Redis for background work; Linux servers under systemd, with Terraform for DNS and GitHub Actions for delivery.
Who owns the code and the data?
Your data is always yours. On a commissioned build, so are the code and the documentation. We sign an NDA before we start.
Where is our data hosted?
On servers we set up and manage for your system, in the country your data is required to stay in.
How is a project priced?
We scope the work first and agree a fixed price in writing. Hosting and support after launch are month to month.