The Codebase X-Ray

The Codebase X-Ray.

The first week of work, before you commit to the sprint.

Two and a half thousand dollars. One week. A real engineering deliverable — not a sales call dressed up as an audit. You get a complete modernization plan whether you hire us or not. If you do, the entire fee credits toward the sprint.

Book the Codebase X-Ray — $2,500 →

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What you get

Not a one-page PDF and a follow-up call.

It's the same kind of artifact our clients get at the end of a sprint — just front-loaded into the diagnostic phase.

  • 01

    Architecture risk map

    A structural read on what's load-bearing, what's brittle, and what's silently rotting.

  • 02

    Dependency audit

    Every CVE, every advisory, every end-of-life library, prioritized by exploit risk.

  • 03

    Production vulnerability baseline

    A real count, not a guess.

  • 04

    Prioritized modernization plan

    The to-do list, in the order a senior engineer would actually execute it.

  • 05

    Sprint scope and timeline

    What we'd ship, in 30 days, for $35K.

  • 06

    Stack health scorecard

    Calibrated against current best practices for your framework.

  • 07

    AI-readiness audit

    Can your team actually use Cursor, Copilot, or Claude Code on this codebase right now? Where it works, where it breaks.

  • 08

    Test coverage baseline

    What exists, what's missing, what should exist.

  • 09

    "If you do nothing" risk projection

    A 6-month forward look at your security exposure, dependency drift, and shipping velocity.

  • 10

    Cost-of-inaction calculator

    Your numbers, against the cost of a full rewrite ($300K–$500K) and the cost of staying stuck.

  • 11

    Hiring playbook

    Interview questions and red flags calibrated to the modernization plan.

  • 12

    Executive summary deck

    Something you can present internally to leadership.

  • 13

    60-minute walkthrough call

    Marcel walks you and your team through every finding.

  • 14

    30 days of post-X-Ray email Q&A

    Included, regardless of whether you hire us.

The offer

$2,500

One-time. Delivered in one week.

100% credited toward the modernization sprint if you proceed.

The X-Ray costs less than one week of your current team spinning on the wrong problems. A full rewrite costs $300K–$500K and takes 9–12 months with no guarantee it ships. The X-Ray takes a week and gives you a plan either way.

Book the Codebase X-Ray — $2,500 →

What if we just run the X-Ray ourselves?

You can.

The X-Ray is a real to-do list — not a sales document. If your team has the senior bandwidth and the AI-tooling fluency to execute it, you've got everything you need to do this yourselves.

Most clients hire us because executing the plan is 30 days of focused senior engineering work, and pulling someone off the roadmap for a month is more expensive than the sprint. But we'd rather you have the plan and walk away than book a sprint you didn't need.

That's why the X-Ray is the deliverable, not the sales call.

Our guarantee

Money back if useless.

If you don't think the X-Ray was worth $2,500 of senior engineering time, we refund it. No questions, no negotiations, no “let me explain why you're wrong.” We'd rather have your trust than your money.

This has never been used. We don't expect it ever will be. But it's there.

How it works

Four steps. One week.

  1. 01

    Kickoff call (30 minutes)

    We learn your stack, your team, your forcing function. You learn how we work.

  2. 02

    Repo access

    Read-only access to the codebase you want audited. We sign whatever NDA your legal team needs.

  3. 03

    Analysis week

    Five business days of senior engineering analysis — Marcel personally, not farmed out. You can ask questions in Slack the entire time.

  4. 04

    Walkthrough

    60-minute live session where we walk you through the deliverable. You ask questions. We answer them. Then you decide whether to book the sprint or run the plan yourself.

How this compares

X-Ray vs $300K rewrite vs free audit.

Codebase X-Ray

Cost
$2,500
Time
1 week
Output
Engineering deliverable
Plan you can execute
Yes
Money back if useless
Yes

Free "audit"

Cost
$0 (and worth it)
Time
30 minutes
Output
Sales pitch
Plan you can execute
No
Money back if useless
N/A

$300K rewrite

Cost
$300K–$500K
Time
9–12 months
Output
Hopefully shippable
Plan you can execute
After 12 months
Money back if useless
No

FAQ

Common questions.

Why charge for an audit at all?
Because a real diagnostic takes real engineering time. Free audits are sales calls. The X-Ray is an engineering deliverable that's useful whether you hire us or not. The price filters for serious buyers and signals that you're getting an artifact, not a pitch.
Why $2,500 specifically?
It's the rough cost of one senior engineer-week. That's what you're buying. If we charged less, we'd cut corners. If we charged more, we'd be selling discovery instead of delivering it.
What if I don't want the sprint after the X-Ray?
You keep the deliverable. Run the plan with your team. Use it to brief your next hire. Or sit on it. Either way it's yours.
Can the X-Ray be used to brief a different vendor?
Yes. We've designed it to be vendor-neutral. The plan describes what needs to happen, not who has to do it.

Book the X-Ray.

One week. Engineering deliverable. Money back if useless. 100% credited to the sprint if you proceed.

Book the Codebase X-Ray — $2,500 →