Art. I — Discovery & scoping
Every engagement begins with a fifteen-minute introductory call — at no cost, with no commitment on either side. Its only purpose is to find out whether we are the right fit for the work you have in mind.
When the project is still loosely defined, a paid discovery session can replace guesswork with a written brief. The discovery fee is credited against the engagement if we go on to build together.
In every case, we start the build from a clear scope — provided by you, or shaped together. We don’t begin until both sides know what we’ve agreed to.
Art. II — Milestones, not hours
We price by the deliverable, not by the hour. The scope document — written before the engagement starts — names the milestones, the timeline, and the price for each phase.
You get predictability. We get incentive alignment: we’re paid for shipped work, not for time at a desk.
No surprise invoices. No padded weeks. No timesheet to argue with.
Art. III — Scope management
The agreed scope is a binding framework for both sides. It is what protects your timeline and your budget.
New requests are welcome — and they are quoted separately, as their own small engagement. This is how we keep the original commitment honest, instead of letting scope creep eat both quality and trust.
The smallest possible quoted addition is usually a few hours; the largest is a new phase with its own milestone.
Art. IV — Communication & decisions
Every major decision affecting scope, timeline, or budget is confirmed in writing — usually a short email or message thread. Nothing important lives only in a verbal call.
This protects everyone: you, by leaving an audit trail of what was agreed; us, by preventing the slow drift of expectations that sinks most freelance engagements.
For day-to-day operational questions, we move fast — Slack, WhatsApp, or whatever channel is already in use on your side.
Art. V — Payment structure
Three phases, on every engagement:
Fifty percent at kickoff — when we lock the scope and start work.
Forty percent at pre-delivery — when the build is feature-complete and demonstrable on a staging environment.
Ten percent at acceptance — when you have completed the agreed testing window and signed off the work as ready for production.
Throughout, you have access to staging environments and live demos. Progress is visible, not promised.
Art. VI — Ownership & handover
Everything we build is yours.
Source code, credentials, documentation, design assets, deployment configuration — transferred in full on the final payment. The handover is structured, with a checklist, and we stand by it for two weeks afterwards in case anything needs explaining.
Until the final payment, the work lives on our staging infrastructure with full read access for your team. There is no hostage code. There is no lock-in.
Art. VII — Pace & responsiveness
We commit to proactive communication. If something is blocking us — a missing decision, a credential we don’t have, a dependency that didn’t arrive — you hear about it before it becomes a delay.
The same goes for missed deadlines. If we slip, we tell you on the day we know, not on the day we were due.
In return, we ask that you respect the testing windows agreed in the scope. If a review takes longer on your side, the timeline shifts day-for-day on ours. We don’t penalise; we adjust.
Art. VIII — Collaboration style
We work as partners, not as vendors. That means honest feedback in both directions — and respectful pushback when we think a decision will hurt the product.
You hired us for our judgment. We give it. We also defer to yours on the things only you can know — your business, your customers, your market.
Most of the long-term relationships in our portfolio started with a moment of pushback. We assume yours will too.
Art. IX — What we won't do
A short list, kept honestly:
We don’t write code without a written scope.
We don’t hand over credentials before payment is settled.
We don’t add features for free under the framing of "while you’re in there."
We don’t commit to deadlines we don’t believe in. If we think a date is unrealistic, we say so before we sign.
Art. X — Why we work this way
Every clause above exists because of a moment in a past engagement when its absence cost someone trust, time, or money.
A working agreement is not paperwork. It is the part of the relationship that lets both sides focus on the work — instead of on disputes that could have been prevented by writing one sentence down at the start.
We would rather you read this and decide we’re not the right people, than discover it three months into a build.
This agreement is the short, public version of the standard contract we attach to every engagement. The signed document for your project will be tailored to its specifics — but nothing in the signed version contradicts anything written here.