Our 14-Day Transfer-and-Ship Playbook
The ones that fit share a shape: most of the original scope is already coded, even if some of it is broken, and the database is intact. Somewhere, on a laptop or a forgotten staging server, the app still runs. If your project looks like that, this is the day-by-day plan. If it doesn't, the audit says so on day 1, and you get a longer plan instead of a vaguer promise.
One rule sits above the calendar: nothing new gets built until you own everything, so features wait until day 8. That feels slow after months of waiting on the last team. It's also why the second week works.
Days 1 and 2: audit, then cut the scope
On day 1 we clone the repository and try to run the app on a clean machine using only the README, which tells you a lot about the team that left. Then we read the git history, which shows what was actually worked on, whatever the status reports said.
We read the contract on day 1 too. The notice period sets the calendar, and the IP clause says when the code becomes yours. Some agency contracts assign IP only once every invoice is paid, which changes how you handle the last one.
The day 1 deliverable is a single page: what works, what's half-built, what doesn't exist yet, and where the IP risk sits.
Day 2 is a 90-minute call with the founder. We sort the code into keep, finish and replace, and then make the hardest call of the whole transfer: the smallest scope that ships at the end of week two. Founders want everything they signed for, and two weeks won't hold it. Whatever misses the cut goes on a written backlog, so it's deferred, not forgotten.
Day 3: take possession
Every repository moves into your GitHub organization, and every account the product runs on moves to you. The database can stay where it is for now, as long as you hold the admin credentials.
Day 3 is also when the previous team loses access, so time it with the termination notice.
Days 4 to 7: foundation
We rotate every key the old team could have seen. CI gets real tests on the paths that cost you money when they break, starting with login and payments. Error tracking and branch protection on main go in the same week.
No features ship these four days, and from the outside nothing changes. Inside, CI goes green for the first time, and every later change gets checked before a customer sees it.
Adapt the 14-day plan to your project
Give ChatGPT your stack and the rough state of the code. It will map the plan to your project and flag the day most likely to slip.
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Days 8 to 11: finish
This is where the finishing happens: closing the gap between what was reported as done and what actually works. A form that saves half its fields. A webhook nobody ever tested with a real payment.
On day 11 the founder gets a demo on staging. Whatever can't be demoed then doesn't ship on day 13.
Days 12 and 13: migrate and harden
The production deploy goes up. Paying customers move over in small groups, and the old stack runs in parallel for 72 hours in case anything needs to go back. Then it's shut down.
Day 14: handoff, and your decision
Day 14 is yours. Some founders keep us on to keep iterating. Others hire a full-time engineer, or freeze the product and run with what shipped. We document for all of them, from a README that works on a clean machine to a runbook for the night production breaks. Whoever touches the code next shouldn't start lost.
The three steps founders skip
When a transfer goes badly, one of these usually got skipped.
The contract read on day 1. "The contract is fine" is what everyone says before reading it. An IP clause found on day 13 is a legal problem. Found on day 1, it's one more line in the termination email.
Key rotation on day 3. "We'll rotate later" leaves people you've just let go holding production credentials. That window is the most dangerous stretch of the whole transfer.
The demo on day 11. "We'll demo when it's ready" gets it backwards. The demo is how you find out whether it's ready.
Is your project stuck with a team that stopped shipping?
Agency Transfer starts at $500, and the price is flat. We audit the code and the contract first, then quote the transfer before any work starts. Send your email and we'll set up a 30-minute call within 24 hours.
Is yours a two-week project?
Answer these before the first call.
- Is most of the original scope coded, even if some of it is broken?
- Is the production database intact?
- Can anyone, anywhere, still run the app?
- Do you have a copy of the signed contract?
- Do you know who holds admin access to the repository and the cloud account?
- Can you name the one flow that has to work for customers to keep paying?
Every "no" makes the plan longer. None of them makes it impossible.
Related reading
- Getting your code back: what to demand before you walk away: the seven-item handover list that day 3 depends on
- We inherited an AI-generated codebase. Here is what we found: what a day 1 audit turns up when AI agents wrote most of the code
- Hire vs engage: the 2026 math with AI agents: the numbers behind the day 14 decision
The service: Agency Transfer. Stuck with a team that went quiet: transfer rescue. Weighing a rebuild: agency transfer vs rebuild.
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