Empty Slot Finder
Build an AI-powered lookup that instantly shows open and partially-open warehouse locations matching a needed size, zone and storage type - with a supervisor reservation gate so two people never grab the same slot.
A team-only web tool where an associate enters an item's size and zone need, gets a ranked list of fitting open slots, reserves one, and a supervisor confirms it before it's marked allocated - exported as a clean CSV for your WMS.
Before you start
- A location master with capacity and current fill (CSV or Google Sheet is fine)
- Pallet / item dimensions you need to place
- Free accounts for Vercel, Supabase, and Resend
The problem this kills
Putaway slows to a crawl when nobody knows where a pallet actually fits. An associate gets a load, then wanders the aisles looking for an open location that matches the right zone, the right storage type, and the right size. Sometimes two people pick the same "empty" spot and collide. Sometimes a slot looks empty but is half-full, or already reserved for an inbound load nobody told you about. Every wasted lap is paid time, blocked aisles, and pallets parked in the wrong place.
A spreadsheet of locations doesn't fix this, because a spreadsheet can't rank slots by fit, can't hold a spot while a supervisor signs off, and can't stop two associates from grabbing it at once.
What you'll build
A fast, team-only web app that answers one question in seconds: "Where does this pallet go?" An associate types in the item's footprint, the zone it needs, and the storage type. The tool returns a ranked shortlist of open and partially-open locations that actually fit - best match first. The associate reserves one with a tap. A supervisor sees the reservation, confirms it, and only then is the slot marked allocated. Stale reservations expire on their own so nothing stays locked forever, and the whole list flows out as a clean CSV your warehouse system can ingest.
What's inside the Implementation Plan
- It interviews you first. Before it builds anything, the plan has the AI agent interview you about your warehouse - your zones, your storage types, how your locations are named, how capacity is measured, your real and peak putaway volumes, and your messy edge cases. It reflects a short tailored spec back to you and waits for your thumbs-up. The result is a tool shaped around your operation, not a generic template you have to bend to fit.
- A step-by-step build you paste into an AI coding agent (Claude Code) one prompt at a time.
- A slot-ranking engine tuned to your fit rules: size, zone, storage type, and partial occupancy.
- The reservation flow with a supervisor confirmation gate and automatic expiry of stale holds.
- Duplicate guards so the same slot can't be double-reserved and the same allocation can't post twice.
- A "No API yet?" fallback: load your locations from a Google Sheet or CSV and export allocations as CSV - so it's fully buildable today, with zero integration work.
The governance it includes (this is the point)
- Login so only your team can open the tool.
- Row-level security so each warehouse or org sees only its own locations and reservations.
- A full audit trail - who searched, who reserved, who confirmed, and exactly when.
- A human-in-the-loop gate - a supervisor must confirm a reservation before a slot is marked allocated and written to your system of record.
- Duplicate guards - one active reservation per slot, and no double-posted allocations.
Who it's for
Putaway associates who need a slot now, supervisors who need to keep allocations clean and collision-free, and replenishment teams who need to see what's truly open. If you run a warehouse on spreadsheets and tribal knowledge, this is the tool that turns "go find a spot" into "here are the three best spots, reserved and confirmed."
You've got this - paste the first prompt and let the agent interview you.