Install ExChek in ten minutes. Stop paying for what you do not use.

There is a version of export compliance for small manufacturers that lives in PDFs, spreadsheets, and a vague hope that the freight forwarder caught the things you missed. Then there is a version that lives in a Word memo with a named reviewer, a timestamp, and a regulation cited. The second one is what BIS expects in an audit. The first one is what most shops actually have.

This week I want to walk you through ExChek itself. What it does. How to install it in under ten minutes. And how it compares to the other software your shop might have already looked at.

I am the founder. This piece is intentionally about our own product, and I am writing it because we get the question every week.

ExChek is a free export-compliance engine that runs inside an AI assistant you already use. It is a plugin. You install it. You start asking it things in plain English. It answers with the regulation cited and produces an audit-ready Word memo with a named reviewer and timestamp on every determination.

Twenty skills cover the practical work an SMB exporter actually does. ECCN classification. Consolidated Screening List search. License determination across Parts 738, 740, 742, 744, and 746. Jurisdiction (ITAR vs EAR). Encryption (5A992 / 5D992 and License Exception ENC). Country risk. Deemed export review under 15 CFR 734.13. Red-flag assessment under Supplement No. 3 to Part 732. Export documentation including AES and EEI prep. Recordkeeping schedules under 15 CFR 762. Risk triage. Retrospective audit on historical shipments. Partner compliance packs. ECP and SOP generation. A compliance report card you can hand a customer. Plus a Word converter, a setup wizard, an onboarding skill, an orchestrator, and analytics.

Live regulatory data is pulled from twelve CFR parts (15 CFR 732, 734, 738, 740, 742, 744, 746, 748, 762, 772, 774, and 22 CFR 121) on demand. Screening hits Trade.gov live. Your item descriptions, party names, and report content stay on your machine. The audit log is HMAC-chained and lives in your filesystem.

Free. The full engine is free. There is no payment for any skill. The only key you need is a Trade.gov developer key for CSL screening, which is also free and takes about two minutes to register at developer.trade.gov.

Human-in-the-loop on every decision. ExChek does not decide for you. It walks you through, shows you the rule, and you sign off. That is the difference between software that produces an answer and software that produces a defensible answer.

Audit-ready memos by default. Every determination produces a Word document with the reviewer name, role, timestamp, regulatory citations, and the rationale in plain English. That is the artifact BIS expects in an audit. It is also what the new wave of AI compliance rules (EU AI Act Article 14, Article 12) are about to require from any tool used in consequential decisions.

Plain English. You do not need to know what an ECCN is to use the classification skill. You ask "classify this headlight housing for export to Germany" and the skill walks you through the questions. It teaches you as it goes.

Local-first. The plugin runs inside your AI assistant on your machine. Item descriptions and party names do not transit ExChek servers. The only outbound calls are to ecfr.gov and trade.gov, and only when a skill needs them.

Three steps. Roughly two minutes of your time, plus a minute or two for the AI assistant to register the plugin.

Step one. Download the latest release zip from GitHub at github.com/exchekinc/exchekskills/releases/latest. Current release is v3.6.3, dated June 15, 2026.

Step two. Open Cowork. Settings, then Plugins, then My Uploads, then Upload. Drop the zip in.

Step three. Run "/plugin config exchekskills" to set your platform tier, optionally paste in your Trade.gov API key, and pick a default report folder. The defaults are sensible. Most shops accept them and move on.

That is it. Twenty skills and two agents are live. Try it. Type "classify this pressure sensor for export" and the classification skill activates. The first classification produces a Word memo, drops it in your reports folder, and writes a tamper-evident entry to your local audit log.

Want a faster install in Claude Code? Three slash commands.

Done. Same twenty skills, same configuration prompts, same outcome.

The full quickstart with verification commands lives at docs.exchek.us/docs/get-started/quickstart.

Products like Descartes Visual Compliance, E2open (which absorbed Amber Road in 2020), OCR Global Trade Management, and Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE Global Trade are real, full-featured platforms used by large exporters. They handle classification, screening, license management, AES filing, and reporting at scale. They also assume an annual subscription, an implementation project, and an internal team to operate them. For an SMB with a part-time compliance owner, the procurement cycle alone can take longer than ExChek takes to install.

Desktop export documentation software. Tools like Shipping Solutions sit on a workstation and help you produce the paperwork. They are durable and well-understood. They do not, by themselves, walk you through an ECCN classification with regulatory citations, screen continuously, or produce the kind of audit-ready determination memo that BIS will ask for in a review. ExChek and a documentation tool can coexist. The documentation tool produces the SLI and the invoice block. ExChek produces the underlying classification and screening file.

Generic AI assistants used directly. Asking ChatGPT or Claude to "classify this item under the EAR" without any compliance specialization gets you a confident answer with no citation, no named reviewer, no audit log, and no memo your auditor will accept. The model does its best. The regulator will not accept that. The Fable 5 directive in June (covered in our June 13 bulletin) is a sharp reminder that AI used in regulated decisions has to leave a paper trail.

Manual processes and spreadsheets. The most common SMB compliance setup is an Excel tab no one has touched in a year, a freight forwarder who handles "most of it," and a hope that the next shipment does not produce a phone call. ExChek replaces the spreadsheet with a structured walk, the forwarder hope with a real screening record, and the next shipment with a memo on file.

Outside compliance counsel. Counsel is the right call for novel determinations, voluntary self-disclosures, and material risk. Counsel is also expensive when applied to every routine quote. ExChek is the tool to use before you call counsel, so the call is shorter and the file you hand them is already structured.

Pick one part you are about to quote internationally. Install ExChek through the Cowork or Claude Code path above. Run "/exchek-classify" on the part. Read the memo it produces.

If the memo looks like the artifact your auditor would want, you have the answer. If it does not, the report flags the gaps you need to close.

Free at exchek.us. Docs at docs.exchek.us. Source code at github.com/exchekinc/exchekskills. Want us to set it up for your team? Book a call.

Install it. Sign the memo. Keep the file.

Matt Dula
ExChek

ExChek is software, not legal advice. Every determination is reviewed and approved by you. American-owned, built to help American SMBs navigate export compliance.