Inbox-to-Action
Classify emails, calls, forms, and customer threads. Draft the reply, assign an owner, surface anything that's gone cold.
Charleston, SC · AI automation consulting · custom ops cockpits
A custom operations cockpit built on the systems you already use.
AI drafts the work, your team signs off, and every action is logged. It plugs into the tools you already use instead of replacing them.
About
Background
I run Blaine Heffron Consulting. I help small businesses turn messy inboxes, calendars, CRMs, accounting tools, and spreadsheets into one operating view. The system can draft follow-ups, summaries, exceptions, and payment work, but your team still decides what goes out.
I have a PhD in physics from the University of Tennessee. I worked on the PROSPECT neutrino experiment at the High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Lab. My dissertation focused on understanding background radiation produced by the reactor and using machine learning to improve background rejection.
Recent work: a private operations cockpit platform, StockForge, Songcraft, Stellar tooling, and custom software for teams stuck in process.
I'm most useful when the work is messy enough for AI to help, but important enough that a person should still review it.
Business systems automation
Internal tools
AI systems
Integrations
Reporting pipelines
Machine learning
Scientific computing
Signal processing
Detector analysis
TypeScript
Python
Rust
Node.js
React / Preact
Automation design
Technical product development
Research software
Consulting
Custom operations cockpits
AI drafting and review workflows layered on top of the email, calendar, CRM, and accounting systems your team already uses.
The starting point usually shows up in the handoffs: inbox work with no clear owner, weekly updates assembled by hand, exceptions scattered across tools, invoices waiting on someone to check the details.
Safety posture
Nothing goes live on day one
Every action starts off. We test it once with no real change, then enable it one piece at a time only after the draft and review path is clear.
- Fits: inbox triage, owner reporting, exception queues, invoice/payment drafting, CRM follow-up, and repetitive admin with a clear reviewer.
- Doesn't fit when the goal is autonomous AI or a full software replacement.
- Before anything goes live, we agree on the scope, the reviewer, the review rule, and the log.
Owner Weekly Digest
Draft the weekly owner summary from the systems your team already uses: stale work, open approvals, exceptions, revenue risk, and next actions.
Operations Exception Board
Pull the weird cases into one queue: stuck orders, connector issues, missing fields, inventory exceptions, and handoffs that fall through the cracks.
Invoice/Payment Drafting
Draft invoices, payment follow-ups, and reconciliation notes for review, with the source data and approval history attached.
Lane 1
Operations cockpit builds
For founder-led companies where the tools are mostly fine, but the handoffs, approvals, and operating view keep breaking down.
Fixed-fee diagnostic
How the work moves now, where it jams, which action should be drafted first, and where a person needs to stay in the loop.
Fixed-fee diagnostic that leads to a scoped build
Start here if the work feels clunky and nobody can point at the right first step.
Diagnostic detailsApproval-gated pilot
One painful business system, one short build. Usually inbox-to-action, a weekly digest, an exception board, or invoice/payment drafting.
Scoped build with a dry run before anything live changes
Pick this if you already know the bottleneck and can name the reviewer.
Diagnostic detailsCustom ops cockpit
One private cockpit pointed at the work that needs attention: stale tasks, pending approvals, exceptions, unpaid invoices, and AI-drafted actions.
Scoped cockpit build with connectors, approvals, logs, and handoff
Pick this when the work lives in too many tools and the owner has lost the operating view.
Cockpit details
Lane 2
Scientific ML and technical analysis
For research and engineering groups whose problem isn't a no-code one. ML, analysis tooling, software where the technical calls matter.
Technical advisory
Consulting on analysis strategy, system design, or a debugging pass before someone signs off on a bigger build.
Scoped advisory, milestone, or retainer structure
Use this when the project deserves a real technical pass before anyone starts shipping.
Technical detailsCustom technical buildout
ML pipelines, detector and signal analysis tooling, research software, technical dashboards. The work where plausible isn't good enough.
Scoped after discovery with milestones and handoff defined up front
Use this when the work needs real software and somebody has to make the technical calls.
Technical detailsNot sure which lane fits?
If the headache is reporting, approvals, inventory, quoting, fulfillment, or customer follow-up, start in the automation lane. If it's ML, simulation, or research software, the technical lane is the right door.
Proof
Selected work
A handful of recent projects across ops software, developer tooling, and technical systems.
Operations cockpit platform
My private automation engine for client cockpits: workflow queues, review gates, connector health, agent-assisted drafts, and logged operating views.
StockForge
Inventory and operations software for a chemical-industry use case: BOMs, barcode scanning, reorder logic, and supply-chain workflows in one place.
Songcraft
A music reading game where kids play along with sheet music in real time, with classroom tools, parent tracking, and live note matching over WebSockets.
Breeze Homes
A cloud-backed platform for customer onboarding, project tracking, floor plans, photo storage, and contractor workflows.
Scaffold Stellar
Developer tooling for building and shipping Stellar smart contracts with less setup friction.
EquitX
Contract and backend support systems for CDP indexing, price feeds, liquidity tracking, and liquidation logic on Stellar.
soroban-sdk-tools
Rust proc macros and test utilities for Soroban contracts, funded through an SCF #39 Developer Tooling grant.
paper-search-mcp
MCP server for searching and indexing scientific papers across multiple sources, backed by local hybrid search.
symbolic-math-mcp
MCP server for symbolic mathematics and tensor algebra in specialized technical work.
ML for PROSPECT
CNN and GCN-based event reconstruction for the PROSPECT neutrino detector, improving usable signal statistics by 3.3%.
Contact
Get in touch
If a workflow is wasting time, leaking margin, or stuck in admin land, send me a note.
A good first message tells me what's broken, which tools touch it, how you measure the problem today, and roughly when you want it gone.
Research
Selected publications
Academic work in neutrino physics, detector analysis, and machine learning.
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JINST 20, P08006 (2025)
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Final Search for Short-Baseline Neutrino Oscillations with the PROSPECT-I Detector at HFIRPreprint (2024)
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Reactor Antineutrino Directionality Measurement with the PROSPECT-I DetectorPreprint (2024)
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 021802 (2023)
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Joint Measurement of the 235U Antineutrino Spectrum by PROSPECT and STEREOPhys. Rev. Lett. 128, 081802 (2022)