Product data sheet
ComPar
Safety Data Sheet review and revision comparison, on the shared-drive folders you already have.
- Product identifier
- ComPar
- Product type
- Windows desktop application
- Recommended use
- Safety Data Sheet intake, operator verification, shared-library management, and revision comparison.
- Intended users
- Compliance managers, safety and logistics staff who maintain SDS libraries.
- What makes it different
- It works on the shared-drive folders you already have. Nothing is uploaded to someone else's cloud, and there is no migration.
- Supplier contact
- Buck's & Co. LLC · buck@bucksandco.co
The problem ComPar exists to fix.
- H-01SDS libraries live as folders of PDFs on a shared drive.
- H-02Someone has to open each file and find the product, manufacturer and revision date by hand.
- H-03Working out which revision is current is guesswork.
- H-04Comparing an old revision with a new one means reading both, side by side.
| Step | What happens | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Ingest | Reads SDS PDFs from your existing library folder: a UNC path or a mapped network drive. | Your shared drive |
| 2 Extract | Pulls out text and metadata with deterministic parsing and local OCR. AI assistance is optional. | The workstation |
| 3 Review | A person reviews and verifies what was extracted before it counts. | The operator |
| 4 Store | Keeps structured records in a hidden .compar folder beside the PDFs, and files the PDFs into Current, Archive and Inbox. | Your shared drive |
| 5 Use | Library management and revision comparison: see what changed between one revision and the next. | The operator |
P-01Extracted data is for review. An operator verifies every record.
Also generates Bill of Lading spreadsheets from library records.
A plain-language summary for the person who has to approve it. Ask for the full security and deployment notes and I'll send them.
- Platform
- Runs on Windows workstations.
- Where your data lives
- Your SDS files stay ordinary PDFs on your share. ComPar adds a hidden .compar folder beside them for its database; include it in your normal backups. App settings, logs and cache stay in each user's Windows profile.
- File access
- Needs read and write access to the library folder. It renames and files PDFs into Current, Archive and Inbox, and deletes a file permanently only when a user chooses Delete and confirms. Every file action is recorded in an audit log.
- AI assistance
- Optional, and it can be turned off. With it off, ComPar uses its own parsing and on-device OCR and sends no SDS content anywhere. With it on, selected SDS text is sent to the AI provider your company configures.
- Other network use
- Installed builds check a public, binaries-only releases repository for updates once an hour. IT can switch this off per machine with COMPAR_DISABLE_AUTO_UPDATE=1.
- Shared libraries
- Several workstations can work on one library. A lock file coordinates their writes; it is a coordination tool, not an access control.
- API keys
- Stored with Windows' protected storage for the current user when it's available.
- Signing
- Current builds are not code-signed, so Windows may show “unknown publisher”. That means the file isn't signed by a trusted publisher; it isn't a malware verdict. Pilot builds run only where your IT approves them.
Technical details for a security reviewer
- Renderer runs with context isolation and sandboxing; Node integration and webviews are off.
- Privileged operations are reachable only through a typed preload API.
- Packaged app fuses: RunAsNode off, load only from the ASAR archive, embedded ASAR integrity validation on.
- Navigation is limited to the app bundle; external links open in the default browser.
- Releases are built by CI from the lockfile, with lint, tests and a type check, and published with a matching version tag.
Ask Buck is an assistant built into ComPar. You ask about your library in plain language; it looks up records and can propose actions such as approving, archiving or writing metadata.
Nothing that changes a file happens on its own: every consequential action waits for you to confirm it, one at a time.
Ask Buck only works with AI assistance turned on. Your messages, and the SDS details it looks up to answer them, are sent to your company's configured AI provider.
Status: Pilot. Pilot builds are sent directly to pilot users; there is no public download. If you look after an SDS library and want to try it, ask.
P-01Extracted data is for review. An operator verifies every record.