Live Replit 10 Year Hackathon · 2-3 May 2026

Designing and shipping an AI product in under 24 hours, solo.

Built for the Replit 10 Year Hackathon on 2-3 May 2026: Replit's anniversary build sprint, where teams ship a working AI product in 24 hours using Replit Agent. I shipped three products in one. A free AI lease reader that reads any US lease in 15 seconds and cites the actual state law. A curated 50-state legal-aid directory. And a built-in AI chatbot that knows every state's tenant rules.

Role
Solo, every layer
Window
24 hours · May 2026
Surfaces
Brand, web, AI, data
Status
Live
check-the-lease.replit.app
Open
Live
01Context

Replit gave 24 free hours of their AI Agent. I gave myself a tighter brief.

Ship a real product for real people. Live URL by the deadline. Brand from scratch. Two audiences from day one. A tool that protects renters who sign and landlords who issue, with one product working both jobs.

"Both sides deserve a fair read."

02Brand

Brand came before product. Editorial register, hand-built character.

Cream, sage, clay, Fraunces italic. An editorial register that reads like a thoughtful magazine. 32 hand-coded SVG icons and 6 big illustrations. A renter signing a 35-page contract has to feel the tool is on their side before they'll trust the analysis.

Logo
Palette
Type
FrauncesItalic display + Inter body
Check the Lease share poster: yellow halftone background with the wordmark, the headline 'Your lease, in plain English.', three pill labels, and a hand-drawn flagged document and key, all in the editorial brand style.
Launch share poster, built in the same SVG language as the icons.
16 of the 32 hand-coded SVG icons shipped in the product. View all 32
03The Analyzer

Reads any US lease in 15 seconds. Cites the actual statute.

Returns a state-tagged action plan with the red flags, the missing tenant protections, and the exact questions to ask before signing. Every flag links to the live state code on the public legislature page.

check-the-lease.replit.app/results/demo
Open
Live
California renter, pre-signing review. 4 red flags, 6 missing protections, 7 questions to ask. Scroll the frame to read the actual flagged clauses with statute citations inline.
04The data layer

Two databases underneath. 50-state tenant law and a curated legal-aid directory.

4A

The interactive state map

The visual entry point on the homepage. Click any state to see the tenant laws that apply, the protections renters get, and the local legal-aid services that exist there. Covers all 50 states, DC, and 6 US territories.

check-the-lease.replit.app/#state-coverage
Open
Check the Lease interactive US state map showing all 50 states plus DC and 6 territories, each clickable to reveal tenant laws and legal-aid resources
A preview of the homepage state map. Click anywhere to open the live, interactive version and hover any state to see its tenant laws.
4B

The 50-state legal-aid directory

The other database. A curated directory of free legal-aid services for every state, DC, and territory. Built because the renters most likely to get burned by a bad lease are the ones least likely to have a lawyer on call.

check-the-lease.replit.app/resources
Open
Check the Lease 50-state legal-aid directory showing the interactive state picker with California selected, revealing four free legal-aid resources for that state
A preview of the legal-aid directory hero. Click anywhere to open the live page and scroll to the state picker.
05The Chatbot

Ask the Lease. State-aware, streaming, no transcripts stored.

A floating chatbot that answers state-specific tenant questions in plain English: notice required for entry in California, deposit caps in Texas, eviction timelines in New York. Streams responses, never stores transcripts. Built for the renter who reads the analysis and has one more question.

Ask the Lease chatbot widget. Sage header with the wordmark, hand-drawn key icon prompt cards for 'Find legal aid', 'Notice for entry', 'Deposit limits', and 'Eviction process', plus a state selector dropdown set to California and a 'Type your question' input.
Ask the Lease. Floating widget on every page, state-aware.
06By the numbers

In 24 hours.

24h
Solo, end-to-end. Brand, code, copy, data, deploy.
3
AI surfaces shipped: Analyzer, resources hub, chatbot.
<15s
Per lease analysis, with the actual statute cited inline.
50
US states covered, plus DC and 6 territories.
2
Audiences from day one. Renters and landlords.
$0
Cost to a renter or landlord, ever. No account.
07Stack & standards

Built on familiar tools. Held to a standard.

Stack
· React + Vite · Express on Replit · Anthropic API · pdf-parse · Replit Autoscale · Cloudflare Web Analytics · Replit Agent (vibe coding)
Standards applied
WCAG 2.2 AA target Lighthouse 90+ Mobile-first responsive Semantic HTML Prefers-reduced-motion 4.5:1 contrast minimum 8pt grid · modular type scale Hick's Law on the upload form F-pattern hero composition Forward-looking copy framing Cookieless analytics Skip-to-content link
08Reflection

What 24 hours of solo shipping taught me.

Brand decides trust before the AI runs. People judge a tool in the first three seconds, before any analysis happens. Data quality beats model quality. A citation only works if the source is real.

Next: a custom domain, a non-profit partnership for the resources hub, and a voice mode so a renter can call the chatbot from the doorstep of a viewing.

02Contact
Ishmael McCalla, designer and founder of CoverTurn

I'm Ishmael. London-born, Black British, designer who ships.

Seven years shipping client websites, the last two running CoverTurn, the studio I founded in 2024. Brand, interface, production code, deploy. I own delivery end to end.

Available for one embedded partner. One agency or product team, 20 hours a week, shipped under your brand. Also open to founding-designer and design-engineer roles.

Next case study CoverTurn

Background: A View at Hampstead with Stormy Weather, John Constable, ca. 1830. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Public Domain · CC0.