Build your first master key system

Before you start

You'll need: a browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge — all current), an email address, about 8 minutes. You'll not need: a credit card, a sample restricted key blank, your code-cutter, or any prior Keyzee experience.

The sample project loads automatically when you sign up. It's a real 12-door / 3-master commercial fitout — the same job we use in the Keyzee vs spreadsheet comparison.

Step 1 — Sign up

Go to keyzee.app/app. Click Create account. Enter your name, email, password (min 8 chars, mixed case, one number, one symbol). You're in.

First login lands you on the dashboard with the sample customer already created — ABC Strata Pty Ltd, three buildings, twelve cylinders, three master groups. The 30-day trial counter starts ticking.

Step 2 — Open the sample system

Click Customers in the left nav. You'll see ABC Strata already there. Click into it. The customer detail page lists three existing systems — pick Building A — Lockwood 570.

The system editor opens to the Doors tab. This is the survey: every cylinder in the system, listed with its area (lobby, stair, plant room…), backset, handing, lock body, and any notes the installer added.

Step 3 — Look at the hierarchy

Switch to the Hierarchy tab. This is where you'd normally drag cylinders into master-key groups. The sample system already has it set up:

• TMK — opens every cylinder. The building manager carries this.
• M.A — Common areas — opens lobbies, lifts, plant rooms. The cleaner carries this.
• M.B — Tenant suites — opens 5 office doors. The tenant manager carries this.
• M.C — After-hours — opens the loading dock + roof access. Security carries this.
• CK — change keys, one per door. Each tenant carries their own.

Step 4 — Run build

Click Build (top right). Watch the engine work — it runs through eight phases visibly: validate access, build the keying-bitting-array, allocate hierarchy positions, assign master pins, compute change keys via the Rotating Constant Method, compute pin stacks, scan for phantom keys, and validate the final stacks against MACS and chamber capacity.

You'll get a Grade A result with 0 critical, 0 high, and a few medium warnings (those are minor pin-thinness flags that don't block the build). The schedule shows 16 keys generated.

Step 5 — Export the workshop pinning card

Click Export. You'll see five formats:

• Workshop pinning card (PDF) — what you take to the bench. Pin stacks per cylinder, master pins highlighted.
• Key schedule (PDF) — what you give the customer. Lists every key, its bitting, what it opens.
• InstaCode .ick — load this into your Silca code-cutter and it'll cut the keys directly.
• Genericode .gcd — same, for HPC / Framon machines.
• CSV — open in Excel for accounting / proposal docs.

Open the PDF. That's a real workshop card you could take to a real bench and pin a real cylinder. Same format every system in Keyzee produces.

Now do it on a real job

Create a new customer (yours or a real one). Add a system, pick a profile from the 35 supported lock profiles, map the doors as you survey them, set up the hierarchy, build, export. Same five steps. The only difference is your data instead of ours.

Stuck on something specific? Read how to read a pin chart next, or email sales@keyzee.app — a real locksmith reads every message.