One Year In: 19 Releases, an API Your AI Can Use, and Your Vote on What Is Next

A year in review for Truck Packer: 19 releases since last September, a REST API your AI can drive, multi-truck packing, and five roadmap ideas up for a customer vote.

Michael Keith Lewis
Michael Keith Lewis
One Year In: 19 Releases, an API Your AI Can Use, and Your Vote on What Is Next

This morning I sent our customers a proper year in review, a little late, and it felt worth putting here too. Since last September we've shipped 19 releases. Crew view you can hand to anyone on the team, undo and redo, team workspaces with real-time collaboration, folders, a manifest importer that reads any spreadsheet, a REST API, the manufacturer case library, collision highlighting, branded PDFs, the truck ruler, and in August, multi-truck packing with a container library and selection based AutoPack, so you pick the cases and it leaves the rest alone. Last week a QR code went on the crew view so the crew can scan the load plan off a sheet taped inside the door. The full list lives on the changelog.

If you want to see where a lot of that landed, here's the crew view of a live multi-truck pack.

The one I want to talk about: the API

Back in March we shipped a REST API. It covers cases, containers, packs, and every item inside a pack, so anything that can make a web request can read a load plan or build one. Stagera pushes pull sheets straight into a pack with it. Since August it's in the free trial too, not just Business, so anyone can try it. Keys live under Settings and API Keys in the app.

Here's the part I'm most excited about. The API reference is written as a skill file an AI can read. Hand that one file and your key to Claude or ChatGPT, paste in a pack list, and it builds the pack for you. Cases, trucks, positions, all of it, through the API. It's not an official integration yet, more of an unofficial MCP, but it works today and we use it in house every week. My brother texted me six photos of a pack he'd mapped out in the warehouse, and Claude Code turned them into a rough two truck pack through the API. Here's the 60 second short of that.

Most of what shipped this year came from you. The ruler, the progress slider, collision highlighting, the container library, just about all of it started as an email or a call from somebody loading real gear. So thank you. A load plan isn't something you get to think about for long, and the fact that you take the time to tell us what's wrong means a good bit.

What comes next is your call

Here's what's on the board. One vote per person, and the votes set the agenda for our next roadmap meeting.

  • Bus trailers and wheel wells. Trailers with a zone you cannot pack in. The app either refuses the well or flags it. Vote for this.
  • Do not stack. A per case rule or a weight limit that keeps the heavy stuff off the fragile stuff. Vote for this.
  • AutoPack 2.0. Heavier on the bottom, packed by category, with a center of gravity readout. Vote for this.
  • Axle weight and balance. Know what each axle carries before you get to the scale. Vote for this.
  • Talk to your pack. The official version of the AI hookup above. Move cases and run AutoPack in plain English from ChatGPT or Claude. Vote for this.

The longer view is on the roadmap. And if you've got 15 to 25 minutes, I'd rather hear it on a video call. Grab 25 minutes with me, or email me at michael@backlinelogic.com. That works too.

Thanks for a good year

When this idea started getting kicked around two years ago, I probably wouldn't have believed you if you'd told me we would have visibility as far as South Korea, Japan and Australia. It's really nice to have some wins to bring to the dinner table every evening, "I talked to somebody packing trucks for so and so" or "they had 20 plus trucks." Who knew a niche problem I was facing in my own touring was shared with an entire community.

Ready to build your load plan? Log in to Truck Packer and pack it.