Custom software
A narrow tool for a real job your existing software does not handle well. Start with the useful part.
available by scope
belt.works · Akron, Ohio
Software that earns its keep.
Belt.works is a practical software shop. We turn messy workflows into small working systems: custom software, workflow automation, data shaping, and web systems built around the problem in front of you.
What we make
Small systems for work that keeps getting stuck.
The job is not to add software for its own sake. It is to remove a real point of friction: the duplicate entry, lost handoff, messy export, or website that cannot do its job.
Workflow automation
Remove repeat manual steps, connect the tools already in use, and make handoffs easier to follow.
available by scope
Data shaping
Turn scattered, duplicated, or messy information into records, exports, and systems people can use.
available by scope
Web systems
Websites and lightweight applications that explain the work, collect the right information, and do a useful job.
available by scope
Method
Start small enough to prove something.
We begin with the real workflow, not a pile of features. Define what has to work, make the first useful version, test it against the job, and keep the handoff legible. If it earns more work, it can grow from there.
Start with the work.
What has to happen, what is getting in the way, who carries the burden, and what failure costs.
Make the first useful version.
Build the smallest working answer to the immediate problem before turning it into a larger system.
Leave it easier to run.
Working software, clear handoff notes, visible status, and evidence of what changed.
Public-interest work
Practical systems can serve people without extracting from them.
ShopFloor is Belt.works’ Akron-first public-interest project: local repair and mutual-aid infrastructure built around trust instead of extraction. Commercial software work sustains the shop. ShopFloor remains its own protected space—community members are not leads, inventory, or gig workers.
Proof
Work should be able to show its work.
A few active systems and shipped artifacts stay visible because useful work should survive beyond a sales call. The point is not to collect projects. The point is to make the next real thing easier to build, run, or repair.
belt.works
The public front door for small working systems: practical services, honest proof, and a clear way to bring a problem.
active
The shop should make the work easier to understand and easier to start.
ShopFloor
Akron-first local repair and mutual-aid infrastructure built around trust instead of extraction.
private alpha build
Community members are not leads, inventory, or gig workers. Public release remains closed.
Towpath
Dispatch, ledger, and handoff infrastructure for work that needs to move between machines without losing the thread.
working predecessor
Useful because it makes follow-through more reliable, not because infrastructure is a product by itself.
hosp-or-not
A small, bounded proof that useful software does not need to become an empire to count.
shipped
Keep it honest, keep it useful.
Start here
Bring the broken workflow.
Tell us what has to work, what is getting in the way, and what a useful first version would need to do. If software is not the right answer, it is better to find that out early.