Caligo Arts · Custom Software & Tools
The tool your business needs doesn't exist yet.
We build it.
Internal tools, customer apps, integrations and AI features that help small businesses grow — built around how your business actually works, and handed over as code and data you own.
Describe the job in a few sentences. You get back a written scope and a fixed price, then working software in stages you can use along the way — and hosting and support afterwards if you want them.
Small tools from $1,500 · business apps from $5,000 · see pricing
You probably need something built if you've said…
- “The whole business runs on a spreadsheet only one person understands.”
- “We pay for three apps and still copy things from one into the other by hand.”
- “Every tool we try is ninety percent features we don't use, and missing the one we need.”
- “We tried an AI tool and it made something up in front of a customer.”
Those are the jobs worth building for. And if an app you can buy for twenty dollars a month already does it, we will tell you to buy it — that answer costs nothing, and it is a common one.
What we build
Internal tools & dashboards
The spreadsheet that turned into a job. Quoting, job tracking, inventory, intake and scheduling — one screen that does exactly your process and nothing else.
Connecting what you already use
Calendars, booking systems, payments, email, forms and files talking to each other, so nobody retypes the same thing twice.
AI that is held to account
Reading your documents, drafting replies, sorting requests, pulling the figures off a photo — with every action logged and nothing invented. How that is enforced →
Apps your customers use
Sign-in, payments, and a phone app that installs straight from the browser with no app store in the way — and keeps working when the signal drops.
Automations
The Monday report, the reminder nobody sends, the reconciliation somebody does at 10pm. Scheduled, checked, and written down so you can see what ran.
Websites that do something
Booking, ordering, members' areas, quote calculators — a site that takes work off your plate rather than a brochure. Straightforward design work too, when that is all you need.
Five products, live today — all built here
The best evidence that somebody can build your software is software they built and still run. Every one of these was designed, written and deployed by Caligo Arts, and every one runs with real accounts and live payments. You can try all of them right now.
AIOS
An AI Chief of Staff. Plain sentences in a daily note become tasks, calendar events and a ranked plan — with accounts, subscriptions, encrypted private notes, offline storage and phone reminders.
The AI Council
Claude, GPT, Gemini and Grok answer one question, check each other's work and report who agreed. Four AI providers behind one screen, paid per session with no account needed.
AIOS Receipts
Photograph a receipt; it reads the merchant, date, tax and total, says which figures it had to guess, and exports a real Excel workbook.
Memories Journal
One page a day and nothing else — and a year of it opens in AIOS as a year of notes, because the two share one store.
AIOS Skills
Real-life skills levelled up like a game — fifty levels, learning paths an AI can write for you, and a public profile you choose to share.
To see how we document software before you hire us, the whole AIOS manual is published and free to read, and the Developer's Notebook is where we write up how things are built and what broke along the way.
How a build works
- Send a short description. What the job is and what keeps going wrong — no spec needed. If it isn't worth building, or you can buy it cheaper, you will hear that first.
- A written scope and a fixed price. What it will do, what it won't, when you will have it, and what it costs. Nothing starts until you have agreed to it in writing.
- Built in pieces you can use. Something working early, and a look at it every week — so the last week is never the first time you see it.
- Handover, then as much support as you want. The code, the documentation and a runbook are yours on the day it ships. We can host and maintain it, or hand it to whoever runs your IT.
What you own when it's done
- The source code — yours outright, with no licence back to us and nothing that phones home.
- Your data — in open, ordinary formats you can read and move without our software.
- The documentation — how it works, how to run it, and what to do when something breaks.
Built on boring, well-known technology — Python, PostgreSQL, plain HTML and JavaScript — chosen so any competent developer can pick it up. If you ever part ways with us, you keep working software.
What it costs
Published ranges, so you know whether you can afford it before you send a word. Every build still gets a fixed price, quoted in writing once we have your description — the range tells you roughly where it will land, the quote is what you pay.
- One job done well: an internal tool, a connection between two systems you already use, or an automation.
- A screen or two, built around exactly how that job is done now.
- The source code, a short manual and a runbook, handed over.
Example: quote requests from your website land in a job tracker, and the customer gets a confirmation.
- Several screens and the people who use them — staff, customers, or both.
- Sign-in and accounts, your own database, payments, email or phone reminders.
- An AI feature where one earns its place, held to account and logged.
Example: a booking-and-invoicing app for a service business, installable on a phone.
- Starts with the $650 Operations Audit, which maps what is worth building, buying, or leaving alone.
- Then a written scope and a fixed price for the first piece.
- Built in stages, each one something you can use.
The audit credits in full against the work if you carry on.
- Hosting, backups that are actually test-restored, and updates.
- A support channel, and priority for changes.
- Or skip it entirely — it runs on your hardware or your cloud account instead.
Changes beyond the agreed scope: $110/hour, or $95/hour on a retainer.
How payment works: half when we agree the scope, half when it is handed over, and thirty days of fixes after that are included. You are never billed for work you did not agree to — if something needs to change, you are told what it costs before it costs anything.
Who this is not for
- You want a copy of an app that already exists and costs less to buy than to build. We will tell you to buy it.
- You need it live next week. Good software is scoped before it is written, and rushing that part is how you end up paying for it twice.
- You want it to run on its own with nobody checking. Everything we build shows its work, and a person approves anything that matters.
It fits best if there is a job that comes round every week, a process nothing on the market quite matches, and at least one person losing hours to it.
Questions people actually ask
- Do I own the code?
- Yes. The source, the data and the documentation are yours from the day it is handed over. Nothing is licensed back to us.
- We already use a CRM, a booking system, QuickBooks… do we have to stop?
- No. We connect to what you already have rather than replace it, and only write into another system when you have asked us to.
- Can you work on something somebody else built?
- Often, yes. The first step is reading it, and you will get an honest answer on whether it is worth fixing or cheaper to replace.
- Where does it run?
- On our servers, with backups that are actually test-restored; on your own hardware; or on the cloud account you already pay for. Your choice, and it can change later.
- Do you only work locally?
- Caligo Arts is based in Tennessee and works with businesses anywhere. Everything can be done remotely, and on-site visits are available locally.
- How long does a build take?
- Most small tools and integrations take a few weeks. You get a date with the quote, and you will be using pieces of it before that date.
Start a project
A sentence or two is enough — what the job is, and what keeps going wrong with how it is done now.
- You send this. No spec needed; plain words are fine.
- A reply within one business day — any questions in writing, or an honest answer if it isn't worth building.
- A written scope and a fixed price, agreed before any work starts. A call is available if you want one; it is never required.