SouthSwellSouthSwellDigital Studio
HomeWho we areLet us help youSolutionsPortfolioBlogContact

Blog

Practical notes on AI delivery, web architecture, and shipping software — from the team behind SouthSwell.

AI delivery
Architecture
RAG
From a laptop demo to production - what an AI feature really costs

We built a RAG assistant on a laptop with Ollama, then shipped it on Azure OpenAI. The migration took an afternoon. Everything we learned afterwards is the actual story.

2026-07-29 · 12 min read
Architecture
AI delivery
Platform
Choosing an AI stack without overengineering it

A compact framework for picking providers, orchestration tools, and hosting without adding unnecessary complexity.

2026-06-15 · 5 min read
Quality
Guardrails
Evaluation
Guardrails I use when AI touches a real product

A privacy-safe look at evaluation points, constraints, and review gates that keep AI behavior predictable.

2026-06-13 · 6 min read
Product
UX
AI delivery
What changes when AI becomes part of the product surface

A note on UX expectations, support implications, and the engineering trade-offs that show up after launch.

2026-06-11 · 5 min read
AI
Chatbot
RAG
Building ShiftGreenBot: a RAG Product Finder

A walkthrough of the chatbot I built for the marketplace: how it turns plain language into grounded product recommendations using Azure OpenAI, MongoDB vector search, and a RAG flow.

2026-06-04 · 11 min read
Authentication
Vendor Dashboard
Architecture
Connecting the Vendor Dashboard to Entra ID

A walkthrough of wiring a React app on Azure Static Web Apps to a C# .NET API, using Entra External ID for login and keeping vendor access under the backend control.

2026-06-04 · 8 min read
Frontend
Performance
Web Vitals
Performance Budgets for the Web Surfaces

A practical way we protect user experience with measurable frontend performance thresholds.

2026-03-05 · 5 min read
API
Quality
Process
Contract-First API Design at Shift

How we use explicit contracts to align frontend and backend delivery while protecting velocity.

2026-02-20 · 7 min read
Architecture
DX
Monorepo
Why Shift Runs as a Monorepo

How one repository helps us move faster across product, API, and shared packages with better consistency.

2026-02-08 · 6 min read