Here’s the problem
The work has to make sense before the interface can.
Custom products create uncertainty on both sides. The customer wants to know what they are buying. The shop needs clean decisions it can actually produce.
Customization + commerce + operations · 2025—26
PATCH22
PATCH22 is more than the customer designer now. I’m building the path from an editable patch design to a priced, locked version, Shopify checkout, and a production job. A separate command center brings orders, artwork revisions, inventory, and finishing work into view.
- My role
- Product design and engineering
- Status
- Designer staging / operations in development
- Contribution
- Customer designer, pricing and checkout handoff, production jobs, and the internal operations command center.
- React / Konva
- Django / DRF
- Shopify
- Next.js / Supabase
- Python
What made this difficult
The environment is part of the product.
- The designer has to stay understandable on a phone.
- The approved design and price need to survive the handoff into checkout and production.
- Shopify owns checkout and payment; the application owns the design, quote, and production-job records.
Decisions that shaped it
I made the hard boundaries visible.
Guide instead of overwhelm
I treated the designer as a sequence of product decisions, not a blank graphics application.
Lock what was approved
The server prices the design and locks a version for checkout. The production job can then refer back to the specific version the customer approved.
Bring the shop into view
The operations work now includes artwork revisions, production packages, inventory visibility, and finishing workflows—not just the storefront.
What I built
Enough of the system to test the real seam.
- React, Vite, and Konva customer editor backed by Django and Django REST Framework.
- Server-side quotes, locked design versions, private uploads, Shopify checkout handoff, and production-job creation from paid-order events.
- A separate Next.js and Supabase command center for order visibility, artwork, inventory, and finishing workflows.
- Python, Streamlit, and SQLite tools for local operations analysis and reproducible imports.
What is true now ·
The round-patch flow has been verified in staging through test checkout and a production job. The operations code now includes artwork, inventory, and finishing workflows; their hosted release still needs qualification.
What still needs proving
- The checkout evidence uses a development store and test payments. It is not a claim that the custom designer is released to live customers.
- Hosted artwork delivery, access qualification, and remaining privacy and release checks still have gates to close. The operations system keeps Shopify write-back disabled.
- PatchSight is related production work, not an automatic connection from checkout to a laser.
Next
Close the remaining hosted access, privacy, and live-checkout checks, then prove the handoff with a controlled production job.