AI-Lab needed to create a custom document management and intelligent search platform for ESG compliance. Using Needle's RAG API and AI coding tools, they shipped a white-label solution in days instead of months, complete with multi-tenant architecture and production-grade quality.
AI-Lab is an AI product studio focused on building custom, production-ready AI solutions using modern tools like Windsurf, Cursor, and powerful APIs.
When an ESG compliance company approached the team to build a custom document management system with intelligent search, traditional development would have taken months. Instead, AI-Lab turned to Needle's RAG API and AI coding tools to deliver a production-ready solution in days.
The ESG company had a specific challenge: they needed a custom platform where clients could:
The requirements were clear but complex:
As Christophe explained:
"I tried building this with N8N workflows initially, but the quality wasn't there. Too many steps where things failed. I needed every part of the RAG pipeline to be solid: chunking, retrieval, everything."
Building this from scratch would require:
Time was critical: the client wanted to demo to their customers within weeks.
Christophe built the entire platform using Needle's API and AI coding tools (Windsurf and Cursor), completing it in days instead of months.
Instead of writing code manually, Christophe used AI coding agents:
"What I did was go into the API documentation, paste the URL to Windsurf, and it read everything. The only annoying thing was documentation needed to be more AI-friendly for scanning, but once I figured that out, it was smooth."
The platform includes:
Document Upload & Indexing
add_files_to_collectionIntelligent Search Interface
search_collection API with semantic searchFile Management
list_collection for file browsingdelete_file_from_collection for cleanupEach client company gets:
"I made them set up a new account with their own Gmail and give me an API key. Now they're running the thing with their own branding, and I don't even need access."
The most important benefit: it worked from day one.
"I used your API to do the chunking, the retrieval, the whole RAG process. The quality was there immediately. I didn't have to tweak anything."
Christophe avoided:
Needle's API provided production-grade RAG out of the box.
AI-Lab's experience demonstrates the power of combining AI coding tools with robust API platforms like Needle:
"If you can provide the chat API with the final answer generation, you can charge for that. It would have saved me even more time building the agentic structuring myself."
AI-Lab is now exploring Needle for additional use cases:
If you're building custom AI products for clients and need reliable RAG infrastructure, Needle's API provides the foundation you need. Start building today and ship production-ready solutions in record time.
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