Feature or rescue
For the feature that keeps slipping, or the codebase that stopped being safe to change
Two jobs that turn out to be the same job: something needs to ship, and the code will not let it. I take one scoped piece end to end, or go in and make the thing changeable again - typed contracts, tests on the paths that matter, and the security holes closed on the way through.
from $1,800From 1 week
What you get
- A scoped feature shipped end to end, or an audit with prioritized fixes
- Security pass and a refactor toward typed, predictable contracts
- Tests on the critical paths so changes stay safe
Who it's for
- A feature that has been two weeks away for two months
- An AI-generated or contractor-built MVP that works until it is touched
- A team down a person mid-quarter with a deadline that did not move
- Untyped JavaScript that everyone is now afraid to edit
Who it isn't for
- Rewrites with no product owner to decide what the new thing should do
- Codebases where I would be the third contractor in a year and nobody has asked why
How it runs
One day of reading
Before proposing anything I read the code and run it. Half of what looks like a refactor turns out to be one bad abstraction, and half of what looks like a small fix turns out to be load-bearing.
Agree the smallest useful piece
One feature, or one subsystem made safe. Scoped so it is finished and merged rather than becoming a branch nobody dares land.
Ship it with tests
Tests on the critical paths only - enough that the next change is safe, not a coverage number for its own sake.
Write down what is still broken
The findings I did not have the mandate to fix go to you in writing, prioritised, so the next decision is yours and not a surprise.
Questions
Will you tell me to rewrite it?
Rarely, and never in the first week. A rewrite is the most expensive answer and it is usually chosen before the cheap ones have been tried.
The previous developer left no documentation.
That is the normal case. The day of reading exists for exactly this, and what I learn goes into the repository so the next person does not pay for it again.
Can you work alongside our team?
Yes. Pull requests, your review process, your conventions. Async-first across EU, US and CIS time zones.
It is mostly AI-generated code.
Then expect the problems to be shaped a particular way: plausible code that was never run, duplicated logic, and tests that assert what the code does rather than what it should. Fixable, and faster to diagnose once you know the shape.
Proof
Everything above is checkable. References from the people I shipped with, the engagements behind them, the public repositories, and the full stack.
Other ways to work together
Describe what is stuck
The feature, or the symptom, or the repository. I will say whether it is a week of work or a conversation you should have internally first.