Our Journey

Building a universe
of tools, one idea at a time.

From a single brainstorm to an 11-product ecosystem — this is the story of how Centauri grew from a search engine concept into a platform powering productivity, learning, collaboration, and civic engagement.

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ERA 1

The Spark

Where it all began — a simple idea for a better search experience

Brainstorm

The Original Vision

The concept was simple: what if there was a search engine designed specifically for how students actually work? Not just a search bar — a home screen for your digital life. Weather at a glance, quick links to the tools you use every day, voice search, and a clean aesthetic that didn't shout at you.

Key Insight

Students bounce between 10+ apps daily. A unified hub could save hours per week.

Brainstorm

Naming & Identity

Why "Centauri"? The Alpha Centauri system — the closest star system to our own sun — represents ambition, proximity, and the idea that the next great thing is closer than you think. The tagline crystallized: "Search, Learn, Build."

Brand Palette

Indigo (#7A78FF) and Teal (#7FE6DB) — energetic but calm. Professional yet approachable.

Product Launch

Centauri Search

The first product — a Google-powered custom search engine wrapped in a beautiful, distraction-free interface. Voice search, image search via Google Lens, and a command palette (Ctrl+K) for power users. This was the launchpad for everything that came next.

  • Google Custom Search Engine integration
  • Voice search via Speech Recognition API
  • Custom backgrounds & quick links
  • PWA with offline support
  • Multi-language: English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, German
Visit Centauri Search →
ERA 2

The Product Explosion

From one search box to a full productivity suite

Brainstorm

The Ecosystem Idea

Once Search proved the concept, the question became: "What else do students need that nobody's building well?" The answer was… everything. Task management was fragmented. Study resources were scattered across dozens of sites. Collaboration tools assumed corporate workflows. Every gap was an opportunity.

Product Launch

Centauri Productivity

The second major product — an AI-powered productivity platform built from scratch for students. Not just a to-do app, but a complete system: task management, calendar sync with Google Calendar, Pomodoro focus timer, goals with progress tracking, and a gamification layer with XP and achievements to keep motivation high.

  • To-do lists, calendar, focus timer
  • Google Calendar sync
  • AI Assistant for planning
  • XP system, achievements & confetti
  • Analytics & study session tracking
  • Project templates & milestones
Visit Productivity →
Product Launch

Centauri Resources

An ambitious content platform: 50+ subject study guides, college life advice, career prep, test preparation materials, and note-taking strategies. Everything a student could need, organized with a mega-menu navigation system and full-text search. No ads, no paywalls — just useful content.

  • 50+ academic subject guides
  • SAT/ACT test preparation
  • Career planning & interview prep
  • College life, wellness & accessibility guides
  • Study planners & templates
  • Blog with original articles
Visit Resources →
Product Launch

Centauri Workplace

Collaboration for how students actually work: study groups, club projects, and class team assignments. Customizable dashboards, shared calendars, meeting notes, role-based permissions, and native Google Classroom integration. Team productivity analytics give groups visibility into how they're performing together.

  • Custom dashboard with widgets
  • Team projects with milestones & dependencies
  • Shared calendar & meeting notes
  • Google Classroom & Google Tasks integration
  • Roles, permissions & team analytics
  • XP system & global achievements
Visit Workplace →
Product Launch

AI Content Detector

A specialized tool born from a real need: with AI-generated text flooding the web, how do you know what's real? The AI Checker analyzes URLs for ChatGPT referral patterns and evaluates text for AI writing signatures. Simple, fast, and honest scoring.

  • URL analysis for ChatGPT traffic referrals
  • Text analysis for AI writing patterns
  • AI vs. human content scoring
Visit AI Checker →
Product Launch NEW

Centauri Counted

The boldest product yet — "Waze for community problems." Counted lets residents report neighborhood issues (potholes, broken streetlights, noise complaints) and automatically detects patterns when multiple people report the same thing. Once enough people verify a problem, Counted generates formal requests to local authorities. Anonymous reporting, Mapbox-powered interactive maps, and community verification thresholds transform individual frustrations into collective bargaining power.

  • Interactive map with Mapbox GL JS
  • Anonymous issue reporting
  • Automatic pattern detection
  • Community verification thresholds (3→5→50+)
  • 7 categories: Traffic, Transit, Housing, Environment, Noise, Infrastructure, Local Services
  • Formal request generation to authorities
Visit Counted →
ERA 3

Platform Infrastructure

The invisible backbone that makes everything work together

Infrastructure

Centauri Accounts — Unified Auth

One account across every product. Built on Cloudflare Workers with JWT sessions and domain-level cookies on .gocentauri.com for true SSO. Google OAuth 2.0 for one-click sign-in. Cloudflare Turnstile for bot protection — no annoying CAPTCHAs.

  • JWT-based SSO across all subdomains
  • Google OAuth 2.0
  • Cloudflare Turnstile bot protection
  • Email verification & password reset
Visit Accounts →
Infrastructure

Cloudflare-First Architecture

Every subdomain runs on Cloudflare Pages with Workers middleware. D1 (SQLite at the edge) handles data. R2 stores files. The entire stack is serverless, globally distributed across 275+ edge locations, with zero cold starts and sub-50ms response times worldwide.

Cloudflare Pages Workers D1 R2 Turnstile
Infrastructure

Centauri Settings — Centralized Preferences

A single place to control theme, accessibility, privacy, notifications, and subscription management across every product. Stripe integration for billing. Data export/import for full user control.

Visit Settings →
Infrastructure

Centauri Docs — Developer Documentation

Full documentation hub: getting started guides, API references, integration tutorials (Slack, GitHub, Google Calendar, Zapier), account management docs, and billing documentation. All searchable with Ctrl+K.

Visit Docs →
Infrastructure

Centauri Support

Searchable knowledge base, categorized help articles, status page, changelog, privacy policy, terms of service, and a contact form. The safety net for every user across the ecosystem.

Visit Support →
Infrastructure

Centauri About

The corporate landing page: company story, philosophy, values, product showcase, and commitment pages (Privacy, Accessibility, Sustainability, Safety, Transparency). Plus careers, press, brand resources, and newsletter signup.

Visit About →
ERA 4

Key Milestones

The accomplishments that defined the journey

Milestone

Shared Design System

Unified visual language across all 11 subdomains: Inter + Outfit typography, glassmorphic panels, consistent spacing tokens, dark/light theming, and the universal 9-dot apps dropdown that appears on every page. One design system to rule them all.

Milestone

SSO Across All Products

True single sign-on: log in once on any subdomain and you're authenticated everywhere. Domain-level JWT cookies + Google OAuth made this seamless. No more creating separate accounts for each tool.

Milestone

AI Integration (Anthropic Claude)

Anthropic Claude was integrated into the backend to power AI features across Productivity and Workplace — intelligent task suggestions, smart scheduling, and automated meeting summaries.

Milestone

10+ Third-Party Integrations

Google Calendar, Google Classroom, Google Tasks, Slack, GitHub, Zapier, Stripe, Amazon SES, Mapbox, and Cloudflare Turnstile. Centauri doesn't exist in isolation — it plugs into the tools students and teams already use.

ERA 5

What's Next

The road ahead is wide open

Expansion

AWS Migration Evaluation

As the ecosystem grows, evaluating a hybrid Cloudflare + AWS architecture for more compute-intensive features: Lambda for background processing, SES for transactional email at scale, and DynamoDB for high-throughput data needs.

AWS Lambda Amazon SES DynamoDB
Expansion

Two-Factor Authentication

Adding 2FA to Centauri Accounts — TOTP-based authentication with backup codes. Security is a feature, not an afterthought.

Expansion

Deeper AI — Smarter Everything

More AI surface area: intelligent study plan generation in Resources, automated team workload balancing in Workplace, and predictive issue trending in Counted. The foundation is laid — now it's about making every product smarter.

Expansion

New Products on the Horizon

The ecosystem continues to grow. Every gap students face is a product waiting to be built. The architecture is ready. The design system is shared. The auth is universal. All that's left is the next brainstorm.

The story continues…

The Centauri Ecosystem Today

11 products. One unified platform. Every subdomain is connected.

Search

gocentauri.com

Productivity

productivity.

Resources

resources.

Workplace

workplace.

Counted

counted.

AI Checker

chatgpt-checker.

Accounts

accounts.

Settings

settings.

Docs

docs.

Support

support.

About

about.