GateKeeper Zero is a full-stack society management platform built for gated communities, residential complexes, and housing societies. It connects residents, security staff, and society administrators through a unified system — replacing paper registers, WhatsApp groups, and fragmented tooling with a single source of truth.
The problem it solves
Managing a gated community involves more actors than it appears: residents, visitors, delivery agents, domestic staff, security guards, and committee members — all interacting daily, mostly without a reliable audit trail.
Common pain points:
- Security guards manually logging visitor entries in paper registers
- No way for residents to pre-approve guests or track delivery status
- Committee members sharing decisions via WhatsApp with no accountability
- No digital record of maintenance complaints or their resolution
GateKeeper Zero addresses all of these through role-specific mobile apps and a backend API designed around these workflows.
Architecture overview
The platform has three main layers:
- ZeroApi — a Node.js REST API (Express + PostgreSQL) that drives all business logic, role-based access control, and push notifications
- zeroMobileResident — a React Native app for residents (iOS + Android)
- zeroMobileSociety — a React Native app for security guards and society admins
Each app speaks exclusively to ZeroApi. There is no direct database access from mobile clients.
Resident App ──┐
├──▶ ZeroApi (REST) ──▶ PostgreSQL
Society App ──┘
Key features
Visitor management
Residents can pre-register expected visitors — family, friends, service providers — generating a one-time approval code. When the visitor arrives, the guard scans or enters the code and the resident receives an instant push notification. Entry is logged with a timestamp and a photo if the guard's device has a camera.
Unregistered visitors trigger a gate-hold: the guard pings the resident in-app to approve or deny. No calls needed, no delays beyond resident response time.
Resident directory and flat management
Each flat is linked to one or more residents. Owners can register family members, domestic staff, and vehicles under their flat. The society admin controls the directory and can freeze or transfer flat ownership during handovers.
Complaints and maintenance
Residents raise maintenance tickets through the app. The committee receives them in the Society app, assigns them, and can update status (Open → In Progress → Resolved). Residents get notified at each stage. The full history is retained per flat.
Announcements
Society admins send announcements to all residents or specific wings/blocks. Push notifications ensure delivery without relying on everyone being in a WhatsApp group.
Security and access control
ZeroApi uses JWT-based authentication with role scopes:
| Role | Scope | |---|---| | Resident | Own flat data, visitor approvals, complaints | | Guard | Visitor entry/exit, resident lookup | | Admin | Full society data, flat management, reports |
Guards cannot see resident PII beyond what is needed to verify a visitor. Admins are scoped to their own society — the platform is multi-tenant at the society level.
Why React Native?
Both mobile apps share a significant portion of logic — API clients, push notification handling, form components, navigation patterns. React Native allowed the team to maintain one codebase per app while shipping native performance on both iOS and Android.
Expo was used during early prototyping for rapid iteration. The production builds are bare React Native for full control over native modules, especially around camera access and background push handling.
What's next
- Vehicle tracking — ANPR camera integration for automatic vehicle entry/exit logging
- Payments — maintenance dues collection with UPI/card support, directly in the resident app
- Visitor history export — PDF/CSV reports for committee audits
- Web portal — a browser-based admin dashboard for society committees who prefer desktop
GateKeeper Zero is a product built by Cadnative. If you're managing a housing society and want to modernise your operations, get in touch.