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richie
richie

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I built an AI contract scanner for freelancers in a day, it just caught a $52,000 trap in a $15,000 contract

I'm a solo builder. A few weeks ago I got frustrated watching freelancers — designers, developers, writers — sign contracts they didn't fully understand and get burned badly.
One bad clause can mean working a full month for free. Another can hand over tools you spent years building. Another can ban you from your industry for years.
Lawyers charge $300-400 per hour to catch these things. Most freelancers just sign and hope for the best.
So I built InkSafe.
What it does
You paste in any freelance contract or upload a PDF. InkSafe reads every clause, scores the contract from 0-100, and flags the dangerous parts in plain English with negotiation tips you can copy and paste straight to your client.
No legal jargon. No $300/hour lawyer. 30 seconds.
The test results
I tested it on seven different contracts before launching. Here's what happened:
The worst one was a 15-clause developer contract. Scored 5/100. Caught 9 issues including a worldwide 3-year non-compete, an IP grab that included pre-existing code libraries, and a termination clause that let the client take the work and pay nothing.
The most interesting result was a web design SOW that looked completely normal on the surface. Buried in it was a performance warranty clause that required the developer to maintain a Google PageSpeed score of 90 or above for 24 months — with a $500 per week penalty if it dropped below that threshold.
PageSpeed scores are affected by things completely outside a developer's control. Client installs a new plugin. Google updates their algorithm. Score drops. Suddenly the developer owes $500 per week.
Total exposure on a $15,000 job: $52,000.
InkSafe caught it in seconds.
I also tested a genuinely fair contract. It scored 88/100 and flagged only three minor improvements. The scoring works in both directions.
The stack
Built with React, TypeScript, Tailwind, Supabase, Stripe, and Gemini 2.0 Pro. Put together in Lovable. The AI prompt took longer to get right than the actual product — getting it to explain legal risk in plain English the way a trusted friend would explain it took a lot of iteration.
Where it is now
Live at inksafe.ai. Free to try with one scan, then $9/month Starter, $29/month Pro, $79/month Agency with team features.
Currently in beta looking for freelancers to try it and tell me what's wrong with it.
What I learned
The hardest part wasn't the build. It was calibrating the AI to score accurately across very different contract types — from genuinely predatory to genuinely fair — without being alarmist or missing real issues.
If you're a freelancer who has ever signed a contract without fully understanding it I'd genuinely love your feedback.

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