What it is
Concierge is a desktop tool for people working on hosted servers who aren't administrators. It lets them perform a curated set of privileged tasks — starting with importing a company accounting file — entirely on their own, by routing each request through a tightly controlled background service that does the actual work safely.
Why it exists
Hosted customers can't see the underlying file system and aren't admins, so routine self-service tasks turn into support tickets and manual placement. Concierge removes that dependency by brokering actions through a trusted service that checks permissions, validates everything, and audits every step — without ever handing users standing admin rights.
Who it's for
Hosted-environment users who need to do routine privileged tasks, plus the support team that oversees the audit trail.
What it does
- Guided import wizard for accounting company files
- Browser-based upload — no fragile remote-desktop file redirection
- Automatic, safe file placement and permission handling
- A versioned, well-defined request contract between app and service
- Group-based authorization checked entirely on the service side
- Synchronous audit logging of who did what, when
How it works
What made it interesting to build
The whole design hinges on one principle: treat the desktop app as untrusted. Assume it could be tampered with, and put every real decision — who's allowed, what's a valid path, what permissions to set — inside the background service instead. That meant careful contract design between the two halves and security-first development on the validation logic. Replacing flaky remote-desktop file transfer with a clean browser upload was an early, decisive improvement.