Developer not delivering?
Our code rescue and audit service gets your project back on track.
We audit your codebase, identify what's broken, and give you a clear affordable path forward within 24-48 hours.
Before you talk to anyone, including us
First, do this
If a developer has gone quiet or stopped delivering, these four things matter more right now than finding a fix.
Secure your access
Confirm you personally hold admin access to the repository, hosting account, domain registrar, and any third-party services (payment processor, email, analytics). If your developer controls any of these and has gone quiet, request access in writing today, before anything else.
Confirm IP ownership
Check your contract or statement of work for an IP assignment clause. Work product you paid for should legally belong to you, but many informal or offshore arrangements never put this in writing. If yours does not, this needs to be resolved before you invest further.
Stop paying for undelivered work
Pause any recurring payments or milestone releases tied to work that has not been delivered and verified. You can always resume payment once you have clarity, you cannot easily claw it back.
Preserve everything
Export or back up the current state of the codebase, credentials, and any documentation before doing anything else. Even a broken, incomplete codebase is more valuable than no codebase.
This is for you if:
- Your developer disappeared, went quiet, or is not delivering
- Your software project failed, stalled, or went over budget
- You need a code audit before investing any more
- You need someone to fix broken software or take it over entirely
Developer went dark
You paid someone to build it. Now it's in production, it's fragile, and no one can tell you honestly what you're dealing with.
Offshore gone wrong
Six months and $40k later, nothing works and the team has gone quiet. 71% of outsourced IT projects fail, usually because there was no senior technical judgment in the room.
No visibility
Every developer says it's fine. But things keep breaking and timelines keep slipping. You need someone who'll give you a straight answer.
What happens next
People fear ambiguity more than cost. Here is exactly what working with us looks like.
Quick Assessment
Free
30-minute call
We listen to what's going on. You tell us the situation. We ask the questions that matter. At the end of this call you will have a good understanding of where you stand and some options, whether you choose us or not, you'll have next steps to getting your project back on track.
Deep Audit
$500 - $1,500, fixed price
3 Days
We go through the codebase end-to-end. Architecture review, risk assessment, technical debt, and a clear fix-vs-rebuild recommendation. No long-term commitment and there will be clear deliverables before any major spend. We can work with or replace your current developer.
Fix or Take Over
Scoped after audit
If remediation or a rebuild makes sense, we scope it in writing before any work begins. Clear deliverables, clear cost, and you decide whether to proceed. No surprises.
How we decide
Repair vs. rebuild
This is the core question the audit answers, and the reasoning behind it should not be a black box. Here is what we actually weigh.
| Factor | Leans repair | Leans rebuild |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Sound foundation, isolated problem areas | Fundamental structural issues, wrong technology choice for the use case |
| Timeline pressure | Deadline allows for incremental fixes | Faster to rebuild the broken parts clean than to untangle them |
| Test coverage | Existing tests (or testable code) to protect against regressions | No safety net, every change risks breaking something else |
| Cost to date | Salvage protects the investment already made | Sunk cost, continuing to patch costs more than starting clean |
In practice most codebases are a mix, some parts worth keeping, some worth cutting loose, which is exactly what happened in the case below. The audit weighs these factors against your actual codebase and gives you a specific recommendation, not a generic one.
Real scenario
The offshore project that was three months in and going nowhere
A colleague called me in on a project that had been running offshore for ~3 months. The deadline was looming, the client was getting anxious, and what had been delivered was incomplete and unreliable. Not unusable, just not good enough and running out of time.
The first thing we did was assess what was actually there. So as per usual there were things that were working and things that weren't. The backend had been built reasonably well, it wasn't what we would have chosen, but it was solid enough to work with. The frontend was a different story. It was a mess: missing features, inconsistent, and not something that would take longer to fix then rebuild.
So we made a pragmatic call. The backend we left in place and we planned a slow migration, flagging it for replacement over time as new features were added, rather than ripping it out and resetting the clock. The frontend we scrapped entirely. We brought in a more modern technology, started clean, and delivered it within the month, on time for the client's deadline.
Our rate was 2 to 3 times what the offshore team was charging per hour. But the offshore team had taken 2 to 3 times longer and still hadn't finished. The total cost was similar with the difference being months of frustration, client risk, and a deadline nearly missed.
What we found
- Backend Functional, flagged for gradual migration
- Frontend Not salvageable, replaced with modern technology
- Timeline On time for the client deadline
- Total cost Would have saved money and time
Offshore development can work. The issue in this case wasn't the team's capability, it was a communication gap between what was actually required and a lack of the right infrastructure to set them up for success. Experience is what tells you whether an hourly rate is expensive. Not the number you're looking at in the moment.
— Byron Georgiou, Assembler AI
Frequently asked questions
What if my developer won't hand over access?
This happens more than you would expect, and it is a warning sign in itself. We can advise on how to request access in writing, and if it is not resolved, walk you through your options, including what a rebuild without the original codebase looks like.
Do I need the paid audit, or just a quick opinion first?
Start with the free 30-minute assessment. If your situation is straightforward, that call alone may be enough to point you in the right direction. The paid audit is for when you need a documented, code-level assessment to make a real decision or brief a new team.
What if the code turns out to be fine?
Then you will know that, with confidence, instead of guessing. A clean audit is a good outcome. You walk away with a clear picture and no obligation to do anything further with us.
How is the $500-$1,500 audit priced?
It is scoped to the size and complexity of your codebase after the free assessment call, then fixed before any audit work begins. No hourly surprises during the audit itself.
What happens after the audit if I don't proceed with a build?
Nothing further is owed. You keep the audit findings and the fix-vs-rebuild recommendation either way. Some founders take that document to a different developer or team, and that is fine.
71%
of outsourced IT projects fail. Not because of bad intentions, because there was no senior technical judgment in the room when it mattered.
1.7×
more major issues in AI-generated code compared to human-written code. Vibe coding is fast, until it isn't.
$110/hr
All work is billed at a single rate, scoped upfront into a fixed price. No surprises, no scope creep billed silently.
We've seen what happens when there's no one technical in the room.
Founders who've been burned don't need a pitch. They need someone who'll tell them what's actually there, even if it's not what they want to hear.
No risk to getting started
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No long-term commitment, start with the audit, decide what comes next
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We can work alongside your existing developer if needed
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Clear deliverables and fixed pricing before any major spend
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You keep full ownership of everything we build or fix
How we work
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Honesty. We tell you what we find. Even when it is not what you want to hear.
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Clear process. You know what we are doing, why, and what it costs before we start.
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No overruns. Everything is scoped upfront. $110/hr, derived to a fixed price.
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We stay. We are not a project vendor. We are a partner who is still here in 12 months.