Glossary
The words we use, defined. Blacksmith.Works is a software talent studio in Skopje, North Macedonia, working internationally.
- Anvil Stamp
- The credential an apprentice earns by completing at least one client project. It is a public page, generated from the platform's live data, listing the projects they shipped, the role they held on each and the date each one completed. It is not a certificate: there is no score, no grade and no rating, and the page does not exist at all for anyone who has not shipped.What the Anvil Stamp is, and how to verify one
- Apprentice
- A junior developer who has taken a place on a real client project through Blacksmith.Works. Apprentices pay for the project, write the code themselves, and have every pull request reviewed by a senior engineer before it ships.What an apprenticeship includes
- Client
- A word this site uses in two senses, so it is worth pinning down. In the account system and on the For Clients page it means the apprentice who buys a place on a project. On the For Companies page it means the company whose software is being built. Where the difference matters, this glossary says apprentice or company instead.
- Mentor
- A senior engineer with at least 5 years of production experience, approved to review apprentice code, run mentoring sessions or write solution architecture. Mentors are paid per service rather than per month: EUR 25 per code review and EUR 50 per mentoring hour, with architecture quoted per project.What mentoring pays and what it asks
- Mentor Lead
- A per-project commitment where a mentor owns the technical direction of a complex build while apprentices implement under their guidance. The architecture, the stack choices and the slot plan are theirs, and they sign off the work that ships. Scoped and paid at kickoff rather than per hour.Per-project commitments
- Mentor Build
- A per-project commitment where senior engineers execute the work end to end instead of apprentices, for a company that wants senior delivery rather than apprentice pacing. Apprentices can shadow or pair on focused tasks if the company wants them included. Quoted with a timeline at scoping.Per-project commitments
- Solution architecture package
- The document a senior engineer writes after the scoping call and before anyone writes code: the problem restated, the stack choice and the reasons for it, the module breakdown, the slot plan, the standards the reviews will enforce, and the shape of the handover. Every project size includes one.What is in a solution architecture package
- Code review
- A written review of an apprentice's pull request against a real codebase, returned within 48 hours, which explains why a change matters rather than only what to change. Each project tier includes a number of reviews, and more can be bought at EUR 25 each.What a real code review looks like
- Brand reference
- The right to name a company as a portfolio reference, earned by an apprentice when their part of that company's project ships. It covers the company name and the project, never the company's code, data or internal details. Whether to grant it is the company's decision, agreed before the project starts.What a company gives and gets
- The Forge Log
- The studio's written record: essays on junior careers, code review, internal tools, architecture and paid mentoring. It is published on this site and carries an Atom feed, and it is separate from the changelog, which lists what shipped on the platform itself.Read the Forge Log
- Refund window
- The period in which a purchase can be refunded in full: 14 days, provided the project has not started. Once project work begins, refunds are prorated against the milestones already completed.The full refund policy