When the build goes
sideways.
A vendor failed or exited. The product is behind, the deadline hasn’t moved, and you’re holding code nobody fully understands. That is what a software project rescue is for: a senior audit of what exists, a stabilised release, and a team that takes over the codebase and owns delivery from there.
How you got here
Nobody plans a rescue. By the time you’re reading this, one of five things has usually happened.
The vendor exited
The agency went into administration, the freelancer went quiet mid-project, or the relationship simply broke. Either way the repo is yours now — and nobody on your side can read it.
The quality collapsed
It demos fine and falls over with real users. Every new feature breaks two old ones, and the team that built it can’t say why.
Nobody can change it
It works, and that is the problem. Every change is a gamble, there are no tests to catch a mistake, and the one person who held the architecture in their head has left.
The clock started
Funding landed or a contract was signed. The build was already behind — and now the deadline has commercial consequences.
The handover never happened
No documentation, no architecture notes, and in the worst cases no complete source code or deploy access. Recovering what actually exists is the first job.
The first step
Find out what you’re actually
holding.
Senior engineers read the codebase, the commit history and whatever documentation survived, then write it down plainly. You get a decision document, not a diagnosis you have to interpret — and it is useful whether or not you carry on with us.
- What works, what is salvageable, and what has to go — keep, fix, or cut, area by area
- The reasoning behind each call, so you can disagree with it
- The risks in priority order, including the ones nobody has named out loud yet
- A plan with a real estimate against it
- Yours to keep, whoever you end up building with
How a takeover works
Three moves, in order. No commitment past the first until you’ve seen the memo.
The Memo
Senior engineers read the codebase and map what’s salvageable. You get a written memo — keep, fix, or cut — with the reasoning, not just the verdict. £4,500, credited in full against your first month.
Stabilise
We take the release over the line: the bugs blocking launch, the infrastructure that pages you at 3am, the tests that don’t exist yet.
Own
The same team stays on the code — new features, performance, the long game. No hand-off, no rotating cast, no repeat of how you got here.
Common questions
Our agency went into administration mid-build. What happens to the code?
First job is establishing what you actually hold: repository access, deploy credentials, third-party accounts, and whether the contract assigned IP to you. We have done this recovery several times. Bring us whatever you have — even partial access is usually enough to start an audit.
The developer has gone quiet and nobody else understands the code. Where do we start?
With a read, not a rewrite. Senior engineers go through what exists and hand you a written memo — what works, what is salvageable, what has to go, and what it would take. That memo is the decision-making document, and it is useful whether or not you carry on with us.
Do we have to start over?
Rarely. The audit tells us what’s worth keeping, and most codebases are salvageable once someone senior owns them. A full rewrite is the last resort — and if we do recommend one, you’ll see the reasoning before the recommendation.
Can you work with another team’s code?
That’s the job. We’ve inherited codebases with no documentation, no tests, and no handover. The audit maps what actually exists before anyone commits to a plan.
How fast can you start?
An audit can usually start within two weeks. Tell us the real deadline and we’ll be straight about whether it’s recoverable.
What does the audit cost, and what do we get?
The Memo is £4,500 for a two-week audit, and it is credited in full against your first month if you carry on with us. You get a written document: the state of the codebase, what is salvageable, the risks in priority order, and a plan with a real estimate against it. It is yours to keep whoever you build with — that is the point of charging for it rather than giving away a sales call.
Who owns the IP?
You do, in full — same as every Origen engagement. Code, designs, infrastructure, documentation.
What if it’s not recoverable?
We’ll say so. Sometimes the honest answer is a smaller scope or a different sequence — you’ll get that in the memo, not after six months of invoices.
Behind schedule?
Let’s look.
Tell us where the build stands. It goes straight to Harley and Jonathan — a real reply within 24 hours.