# Cardinal Stacks

> Custom software, flat price, two weeks. Cardinal Stacks designs, builds, rescues, and runs production-grade software across healthcare, financial compliance, legal, and other regulated industries. Flat fees. No discovery calls. Two business days to a written quote. Twelve production systems shipped across four regulated verticals.

## What we do

Cardinal Stacks is an AI-native software studio operating four engagement types and three monthly retainer tiers. Every engagement is flat-fee with a written quote returned in 48 hours, includes 30 days of free fixes after handoff, and ships with the full Cardinal operating stack wired in on day one.

## Engagements (flat-fee, fixed scope, fixed timeline)

- **Vibe Rescue** — $4,800 flat. 14 days. Production hardening for vibe-coded apps built in Lovable, v0, Bolt, or Cursor. Fixes logins, data layer, secrets, AI cost ceilings, error monitoring, deployment pipeline, and user data handling. Leaves working screens intact — never a rewrite. Includes free 48-hour audit before commitment. Covered by mutual NDA before any code is shared. Cardinal's flagship engagement. [Details](https://cardinalstacks.com/viberescue)
- **Prototype Sprint** — $1,800 flat. 5–7 days. Turns an idea, sketch, or memo into a working prototype on a temporary domain. Real interactions, real data, real flow. For founders validating with investors, advisors, or early users. [Details](https://cardinalstacks.com/build#tiers)
- **Signature Site** — $3,200 flat. 7–10 days. Hand-built launch site at the client's own domain. Brand-voice copywriting, custom design, AIO/GEO SEO baseline. No templates, no bento, no stock photos. Includes 30-day Foundation retainer. cardinalstacks.com is itself a Signature Site. [Details](https://cardinalstacks.com/build#tiers)
- **Flagship Build** — $7,500 (5–10 pages) / $12,000 (10–25 pages) / $28,000+ (25–40 pages, regulated). 2–5 weeks flat. Full ground-up custom build: brand copy, design, WCAG 2.1 AA, AIO/GEO SEO, Scout agent integrated, HIPAA / attorney-client / SEC compliance posture where required. Includes 30-day Accelerator retainer. [Details](https://cardinalstacks.com/build#tiers)

## Free diagnostic

- **Free 48-hour code audit** — Written production-readiness report. No commitment, mutual NDA same day, read-only repo access or zipped project. Three honest outcomes: (1) ready for production → audit is free and that's the end; (2) needs fixes → audit plus a flat quote for rescue or build; (3) code is fine → told so in writing. Two business days from receipt. [Details](https://cardinalstacks.com/diagnostic)

## Retainers (monthly, post-engagement or standalone)

- **Foundation** — $1,400–$2,200 / month. Managed hosting, SSL, CDN, backups, Pulse monitoring, Bug Catcher widget, up to 5 hours of edits, local SEO, Scout Basic (FAQ + lead capture), starter content (1 blog/week, 8 social posts). For new businesses, post-Vibe-Rescue clients, post-Signature-Site clients. [Details](https://cardinalstacks.com/retainers#foundation)
- **Accelerator** — $5,200–$7,800 / month. Everything in Foundation plus regional AIO/GEO SEO, Scout Mid (CRM-integrated, sales-qualifying, multi-channel), growth content (3 blogs/week, 16–20 social, 3 platforms), Triage feedback management, quarterly strategy review. For established SMBs and regulated firms growing market share. [Details](https://cardinalstacks.com/retainers#accelerator)
- **Apex** — $11,000–$18,000 / month. Everything in Accelerator plus national / competitive GEO, Scout Enterprise (omnichannel, custom workflows, HIPAA / attorney-client), authority content (7 blogs/week, 30+ social, video scripts), editorial campaigns (op-eds, contributor pieces, podcasts), dedicated strategist, custom dashboard. For SMBs competing for category leadership. [Details](https://cardinalstacks.com/retainers#apex)

Annual retainers: 10% off, locked pricing, and one free month when you tier up (Foundation → Accelerator, or Accelerator → Apex) within the first 12 months.

## Operating Stack (ships with every engagement)

Cardinal's proprietary delivery stack — built in-house, wired in on day one, kept after handoff.

- **Pulse** — One-screen health dashboard: uptime, error rate, active users, AI spend, last deploy.
- **Triage** — Two-axis feedback kanban (idea maturity × assignment status). Doesn't force premature decisions.
- **Redactor** — Privacy guard between app and LLM. Tokenizes PII before the model sees it, swaps back on response. Critical for HIPAA, attorney-client privilege, SEC-confidential workflows. **Available standalone.**
- **Worktree** — Parallel-agent delivery: multiple AI agents work simultaneously in sealed workspaces, Cardinal orchestrates. Enables 14-day Vibe Rescue and 2–5 week Flagship Build timelines.
- **Bug Catcher** — In-app floating feedback widget. Captures screenshot + user annotation + browser / URL / steps. 5-minute install. **Available standalone.**
- **Scout** — AI sales / support agent. Brand-trained, RAG-grounded, CRM-integrated at Accelerator tier and above. Qualifies leads, books meetings, handles FAQs, routes escalations.

[Operating stack overview](https://cardinalstacks.com/stack)

## Verticals served

Cardinal has shipped 12 production systems across 4 regulated verticals.

- **Healthcare (HIPAA / BAA / PHI)** — Theryo (AI mental health platform, public at theryo.ai), AIMS Clinical (anesthesia information system), ProveMD (medical provider credentialing). [HIPAA software development](https://cardinalstacks.com/hipaa-software-development)
- **Financial / SEC EDGAR / FINRA** — Filerlink (SEC EDGAR filing platform, public at filerlink.com), ProspectusConnect (mutual fund prospectus distribution), FilerManagement (compliance SaaS), Simpliprint (SEC financial-reporting print workflows), Edgarworks (high-volume encrypted EDGAR workflows). [SEC EDGAR software development](https://cardinalstacks.com/sec-edgar-software-development)
- **Legal (attorney-client privilege)** — Lawtime (plaintiff-side case discovery + management), Redator (legal document management with PII redaction). [Legal technology development](https://cardinalstacks.com/legal-software-development)
- **Consumer** — Pintcones (wholesale + retail e-commerce, public at pintcones.com), KanjiKanji (iOS / Android Japanese kanji learning app).

## Team

US-based senior engineering team. Direct communication throughout — no junior handoffs, no account-manager layers.

- **Kanji** — Co-Founder, Technology & AI Systems. Designed Cardinal's AI-accelerated delivery and proprietary stack. Background in AI systems architecture, parallel-agent orchestration, and regulated environments.
- **Alex** — Co-Founder, Operations & Strategy. Founded prior companies in healthcare AI, medical billing, and SEC-regulated financial services. Personally oversaw HIPAA, SEC, and attorney-client deployments.
- **Nasir** — CTO, Chief Software Engineer. Production depth across healthcare, financial compliance, and AI platforms. Owns architecture decisions and code quality.

## Blog

Field notes on AI-coded delivery, regulated software, and flat-fee custom builds. Written by Cardinal's senior engineers.

- [How to harden a Lovable, v0, or Bolt app for production in 14 days](https://cardinalstacks.com/blog/hardening-lovable-app-for-production) — Field-tested Vibe Rescue playbook: what breaks in production, what to fix first, how 14 days actually shakes out.
- [Flat-fee SaaS development in 2026: what it actually costs and why](https://cardinalstacks.com/blog/flat-fee-saas-development-2026) — The economics of flat-fee custom software for SMBs: what shifts when AI does the typing and engineers do the strategy.
- [What Is Vibe Rescue? Hardening Vibe-Coded Apps for Production](https://cardinalstacks.com/blog/what-is-vibe-rescue) — Definition, scope, and intake walkthrough of the Vibe Rescue engagement.
- [Lovable App Security: 7 Fixes Before Production](https://cardinalstacks.com/blog/lovable-app-security-checklist) — Specific security failures in vibe-coded Lovable apps and the seven fixes that close the gap before launch.
- [How Long to Get a Bolt or v0 App Production Ready?](https://cardinalstacks.com/blog/bolt-v0-app-production-timeline) — Honest timelines for hardening Bolt and v0 apps, and how Cardinal's parallel-agent delivery hits 14 days.
- [HIPAA-Compliant App Development: What AI Tools Miss](https://cardinalstacks.com/blog/hipaa-compliant-app-development-ai-gaps) — The HIPAA gaps Lovable, v0, and Bolt won't catch on their own, and how BAA-grade architecture closes them.
- [Flat-Fee vs Hourly Software Development: What You Pay](https://cardinalstacks.com/blog/flat-fee-vs-hourly-software-development) — Cost comparison and risk allocation between flat-fee and time-and-materials models for custom software.
- [SEC EDGAR Software Development: What to Look For](https://cardinalstacks.com/blog/sec-edgar-software-development-partner) — What to evaluate in a software partner for SEC EDGAR, FINRA-aware, and audit-ready financial systems.

## Frequently asked questions

**Will you rewrite my whole app?**
No. Vibe Rescue touches what's broken and leaves working screens intact. Most clients ship with the same UI they started with, hardened underneath.

**Can I keep editing in Lovable, v0, or Bolt after Cardinal hardens it?**
Yes. Cardinal merges your future edits back into the production codebase. The vibe-coding workflow continues.

**What if my code is already fine?**
The 48-hour audit is still free. You get a written confirmation that you're ready for production and no engagement is sold.

**Do you work in regulated industries?**
Yes. HIPAA, SEC EDGAR / FINRA, attorney-client privilege. BAAs and DPAs available on request. Twelve production systems shipped across four regulated verticals.

**Do you do hourly or T&M?**
No. Every engagement is flat-fee with a written quote returned in 48 hours.

**Do you sign NDAs?**
Mutual NDA same day, before any code review. Standard part of the diagnostic intake.

**What does turnaround look like for the free audit?**
Two business days from receipt. Friday submission → Tuesday audit.

**How does Cardinal use AI in delivery?**
AI handles code generation and agent orchestration via the Worktree tool. Engineers handle strategy, design, compliance, and architecture decisions. AI never owns the final review.

**What happens after handoff?**
30 days of free fixes included with every engagement. After that, onboard onto a Foundation / Accelerator / Apex retainer, or take the keys and run it yourself.

**Is the Operating Stack proprietary or open?**
Proprietary, built in-house. Ships with every engagement. Bug Catcher and Redactor are also available as standalone tools — contact hello@cardinalstacks.com for pricing.

## Contact

- Email: hello@cardinalstacks.com
- Location: Englewood, Colorado, USA
- Hours: Monday–Friday, 9 AM – 5 PM Mountain Time
- Website: https://cardinalstacks.com

## Optional

- [Full content reference (llms-full.txt)](https://cardinalstacks.com/llms-full.txt) — Comprehensive markdown of every service page, retainer tier, operating-stack tool, vertical landing page, and FAQ. For AI agents that need the deep content rather than the curated index above.