In productionOperations · since Sep 2026
Every email read. Every order up to date.
Beacon is the AI operations hub behind an operations team’s orders. Every 15 minutes it reads every email in the operations mailbox, updates orders, shipments and requests, and prices quotations and prepares Xero invoice drafts. It never sends email: client replies wait as drafts, and anything it isn’t sure about goes to a person.
40+ orders. 20+ suppliers. All in email.
Status
buried in threads
Prices
one spreadsheet at a time
Follow-ups
in people's heads
Every 15 minutes, on its own.
Mailbox
read + draft only
AI agent
reads mail + files
Second check
agrees, or a person decides
Hub
logged · 1-click undo
Engineering notes
- Nothing missed, nothing doubled. Each run re-scans a 6-hour overlap and skips mail already processed.
- Sent mail reads differently. What we send is a confirmed action; what a supplier sends is a claim.
- Attachments are evidence. PDFs, spreadsheets and photos are read; order refs come from file names too.
- Doubts go to a person. If the second check disagrees, the change waits in Needs review. Every Keep or Discard is saved to measure accuracy.
- Only live facts. It reads the email, the thread and live project data, so old order details can't leak into new updates.
- Failures don't block the queue. Retries with backoff; 3 failures and a person takes it.
- Runs on free tiers. Big price lists (the largest has 240k lines) are split into sorted chunks with a binary-search index.
- One card per order. A supplier can run several orders on one project; each email is matched to the right one by order number, PO and pro forma.
- Holidays count. Ready dates start when production really starts and skip any holiday the supplier names.
- Tested before it ships. Automated suites cover the API, permissions, screens and invoice builder; reader changes are replayed on real emails first (one fix took made-up details from 3 of 41 emails to 0).
One order. Four emails.
Watch Beacon handle one order from the first email to production. Green is what it does on its own; amber is where you decide. Made-up data.
One hub. Twelve tools.
Today
what needs me now
Requests
asks pulled from email
Projects
status, updated by mail
Shipments
five-stage board
Delivery sheets
invoice → delivery note, back orders tracked
Stock
levels and every movement logged
Price lookup
every list, one search
New prices
approved before use
Quote helper
fills exact matches
Invoice drafts
quote → draft invoice in the accounting software
Desk assistant
answers questions on the hub’s data
Nightly check
re-reads, fixes, logs
Rules it can't break.
- 01
Can't send email
It only writes drafts. You press send.
- 02
Never guesses numbers
A blank beats a made-up price or date.
- 03
Exact codes only
A near match is flagged for a person.
- 04
Costs stay private
Only admins see buying costs.
- 05
Checked twice
A second check must agree; one click undoes it.
- 06
Autonomy is earned
It acts alone only after 5 approvals in a row.
- 07
Never goes backwards
A later email can’t move an order back; only a person can.
- 08
Unsure means ask
If it can’t tell which order an email is about, a person decides.
Built and run end to end.
- 01
Process
Mapped how orders really move
- 02
Data
Designed the order and price model
- 03
Testing
Turned real email threads into rules
- 04
Rollout
Team and admin areas, now live