Behind the scenes: the rules I set before putting AI in front of people
Two small tools and the service behind them went live last weekend, and the more useful story is the handful of rules I wouldn't build them without.
Last weekend two small tools and the service behind them went live, and I'd rather tell you about the rules I built them under than walk you through the features. I've been working toward adding AI to my own WordPress® plugins, and each feature would have needed the same plumbing underneath: a key to check who's asking, a limit so one mistake can't run up a bill, and a count of what each request cost. So I built that once, and the two tools you can try today sit on top of it.
The week in short:
- Shadow Steward is a website advisor. The image check needs no sign-up, and the search engine optimization (SEO) check asks for a web address and an email.
- Chirp Suite helps you answer a review or comment, such as the course reviews and forum questions that pile up after a launch. The reply helper needs no sign-up.
- Vortops is the back end underneath both. Developer accounts open through an early-access request, with a free test key.
Plain words first
The easiest way to make AI feel trustworthy is to stop it sounding like a security scanner. A lot of site checkers are thorough, and that's the trouble: forty warnings and no idea which one matters, like getting an essay back with every line circled in red. Shadow Steward's SEO check gives you a score out of 100 and the ten things that matter most, each with what it found, why it matters and how to fix it.
The image check is plainer still. Drop in a photo and it shows you the file name and size, and what the picture is quietly carrying around, because plenty of phone photos record exactly where they were taken. If you build course pages, you'll know alt text, the short description a screen reader reads aloud, is an accessibility job that nobody enjoys. The tool drafts it in three lengths, with a title and a caption, and you review it.
A person decides, and the tool admits what it doesn't know
Neither tool changes your site or sends anything for you, and I'd call that the most important rule on the list. AI is always labelled on both, so you can tell what a person set up and what a machine wrote. The Chirp Suite reply helper shows the idea well. You paste in a review and you get three replies in different tones. You pick one and send it yourself, after you've made it yours.
I also wanted the tools to be a little humble. Shadow Steward says how sure it is about what it found. The reply helper adds a note when something needs care, such as personal details or legal risk, and it won't promise a refund on your behalf. Sometimes the honest advice is not to reply at all, and it will say so. A tool that always has an answer isn't one I'd put in front of a learner. For a different side of the same idea, see the week my own guardrails knew better than I did.
Costs and data where you can see them
On the developer side, each Vortops project gets its own key, with live and test versions, a monthly limit, and a response that says what the call cost. Credits are one US cent each at list price, they don't expire, and unused ones roll over. A test key proves your wiring works without running a model or costing anything.
On the people side, what you paste into the reply helper or upload to the image check is used for that one request and not kept. The SEO check is the exception, because it keeps your web address and email to send the report and to hold you to one check per site each month.
They're small on purpose, and they're new, so a rough edge or two wouldn't surprise me. If you try one and something feels off, or there's a check you wish existed, tell me through the contact page on Shadow Steward or Chirp Suite. What you send will help me decide what to build next.