Build the Future
Product prototyping studio
Pathfinder Prototyping builds the layer between your hands and the software that runs your work. Twenty one Stream Deck plugins cover CAD, PCB design, laser, 3D printing, creative tools, knowledge work, phone control, and dev tools, eighteen of them live on the Elgato Marketplace. Physical keys, real state, no menus.
Every serious application carries more commands than a keyboard can hold. We move the ones that matter onto hardware, and write the software behind them. Plugins are what ships today. The practice travels to whatever needs prototyping next.
Command catalogs that cover the whole application rather than a starter set of shortcuts, organized into task categories so an operator finds the key without a manual. Tested on real hardware before release.
Keys that read the application back: a laser key that shows job status over the network, PCB keys that know the active layer, keys that name the open document. State lives on the key, not in your head.
Your team runs software nobody has built controls for. We take on custom plugin and workflow-tooling builds. Each one starts with a paid assessment of your application, so the scope is known before the build begins.
Every plugin, its target application, and where it stands right now. 2,035 commands across the line.
| Plugin | Domain | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| OrcaSlicer Hotkeys | 3D printing | Live | 76 commands across 13 categories. Four dials. |
| LightBurn Hotkeys | Laser | Live | 123 commands across 17 categories. Live machine status over the network. |
| KiCad Hotkeys | PCB design | Live | 228 commands across 22 categories. Eight dials, live layer readout, auto page switching. |
| Inkscape Hotkeys | Vector design | Live | 187 commands across 19 categories. Tool switching and canvas control. |
| GIMP Hotkeys | Image editing | Live | 100 commands across 12 categories. |
| Obsidian Hotkeys | Knowledge work | Live | 90 commands across 13 categories. Eight dials. Drives Obsidian's official CLI. |
| PureRef Hotkeys | Reference boards | Live | 169 commands across 14 categories. Mode-aware drawing keys. |
| Plasticity Hotkeys | CAD modeling | Live | 170 commands across 14 categories. Custom key art, per-key sounds. |
| FreeCAD Hotkeys | Parametric CAD | Live | 330 commands across 27 categories. The big one. |
| Windows Terminal Hotkeys | Development | Live | 62 commands across 14 categories. Wheel-scroll scrub on the dial. |
| Clipchamp Hotkeys | Video editing | Live | 17 commands across 5 categories. Deck control inside a browser-based app that ordinary shortcut tools do not reach. |
| SOLIDWORKS Hotkeys | Mechanical CAD | Live | 93 commands across 10 categories. Native SOLIDWORKS API routing. |
| Phone Link Hotkeys | Phone control | Live | 18 commands across 4 categories. Android battery, media, and toggle keys read live and confirm from the phone itself. |
| Bambu Studio Hotkeys | 3D printing | Live | 78 commands across 12 categories. Nine dials plus a print telemetry strip. |
| Excalidraw Hotkeys | Whiteboarding | Live | 67 commands across 6 categories. Live active-tool readout. |
| Onshape Hotkeys | Cloud CAD | Live | 104 commands across 13 categories. Live document and tab readout. |
| OneNote Commander | Note taking | Live | 123 commands across 13 categories. Dials show the live page and section. |
| Sound Sampler | Audio capture | Live | Free. Record what your PC is playing, then use the clips as key sounds anywhere in the line. |
| Krita Complete | Digital painting | In review | 132 commands across 13 categories. Seven dials. |
| Claude Complete Controller | AI tooling | In review | Session monitoring and control for Claude Code. |
| 3D Builder Commander | 3D modeling | Built | 52 commands across 8 categories. Emboss text onto a model from one key. |
Every plugin has its own page with screens, specs, and support notes. Names in the table above go straight to the Elgato listing.
Plugins are what you can buy today. The rest is commissioned: automation, AI systems, and production tooling for shops and benches.
We build the tooling that keeps automated work visible: the job shows its state while it runs, and a person can interrupt it or take it over at any point. No black boxes on the bench.
Plenty of professional software ships with nothing to automate against. We build control for those applications anyway, steady enough that a shop can run its daily workflow on top of it.
A locked visual language held across hundreds of marks, so a full set reads as one instrument instead of a pile of clip art. The style gets set once, then held.
Delivered for a medical-device prototyping shop: an AI workstation that sits where the work happens, next to load cells, stepper motors, and firmware, rather than in a browser tab.
Pathfinder Prototyping is a product studio in St. Paul, run by a maker who crossed into AI. The direction of travel matters: years of fabrication, 3D printing, and shop-floor problem solving, now aimed at the software those trades run on.
"I build AI systems for the people who make things. I came up through fabrication and 3D printing, so I know what the bench actually needs. Most software isn't written for shops and workbenches. Mine is. New tools for old problems."
Your team lives in one piece of software: a CAM package, a lab instrument console, a dispatch screen. Its most-used controls belong under their fingers, not three menus deep.
Custom work starts with a paid feasibility assessment. The deliverable is a written report on what a deck can control in your application, and what state it can read back.
You decide after the report, not before. If your application cannot do what you want, the report says so plainly and nothing further gets scoped. If it can, we build it: a plugin your operators install, with keys that do real work and show real state.
