How it works

Two weeks. Five stories. One decision.

Our instruments excavate the decision history. Our practitioners turn it into institutional memory you can act on.

What we actually do

Institutional archaeology.

Every system is a dig site. The code is one layer. The commits, the tickets, the PRDs, the deployment history, the team structure — each one preserves decisions nobody remembers making. We excavate all of them.

We don't audit code quality. We answer business questions.

The process

Three phases. Two weeks.

Phase 01

Connect

Week 0

We get read-only access to your systems. No disruption to your team.

  • Codebase access (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)
  • Ticket system sync (Jira, Linear)
  • PRDs and documentation
  • One 30-minute stakeholder call
  • Read-only. Always.
Phase 02

Map

Week 1

Our tooling correlates everything. Commits to tickets. Tickets to requirements. Requirements to code. We build the real picture.

  • Code archaeology — trace how decisions became code
  • Knowledge graph construction — who knows what, how concentrated
  • Automated system topology — the real architecture, not the diagram
  • Risk correlation — technical findings linked to business impact
  • Drift analysis — stated intent vs. actual implementation
Phase 03

Deliver

Week 2

You get answers you can act on. Stories backed by data, options backed by numbers.

  • Executive briefing (60–90 minutes)
  • Five Stories with supporting evidence
  • Risk map — which risks matter, which are dormant
  • Strategic options — fix, rebuild, or hybrid with effort and trade-offs
  • Searchable knowledge base of your entire system
Technology + Judgment

Technology finds the data. Experience finds the truth.

Our tooling surfaces everything hiding in your system — across code, commits, tickets, PRDs, and deployment history. Our practitioners turn those findings into decisions you can act on.

Risk mapped to decisions

Which risks are actively slowing you down, which are safely dormant, and what each one means for the business. Not "high complexity" — actual implications.

Compliance by framework

SOC 2, PCI DSS, GDPR, NIST — readiness scored per framework. Gaps identified with remediation priority.

Security & dependency risk

Vulnerabilities, hardcoded secrets, EOL packages, license conflicts, and known CVEs — across every project.

Strategic options, not just findings

Fix, rebuild, or hybrid — each option with effort, timeline, and risk reduction. A roadmap, not just a report.

What we access

Four inputs. That's it.

Codebase

GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket. We clone and analyze. We never write.

Read-only

Ticket System

Jira, Linear, or equivalent. We map tickets to commits to understand intent.

Read-only

Documentation

PRDs, architecture docs, runbooks. Whatever exists. Sparse is fine.

Read-only

One Stakeholder Call

30 minutes. We ask the questions your team won't ask each other.

30 min
What you get

The Five Stories

Five narratives backed by evidence, compliance scorecards, strategic options, and a searchable knowledge base of your entire system.

01

The Architecture Story

What you actually have vs. what you think you have. We map the real system topology and compare it to stated architecture. Every gap is a risk you didn't know about.

02

The Knowledge Story

Who knows what, and what happens when they leave. We identify knowledge concentration, single points of failure in your team, and the institutional memory that lives only in someone's head.

03

The Risk Story

Where technical debt concentrates and what it costs. Not every debt matters. We show you which debt is actively slowing you down and which is safely dormant.

04

The Velocity Story

Is the team building what the roadmap says — or spending cycles on maintenance, gap-closing, and work nobody decided to prioritize? We show you where engineering time actually goes vs. where the business thinks it goes.

05

The Investment Story

Is investment following the strategic plan — or going to maintenance, rework, and decisions nobody made? We show where the money actually goes vs. where the business thinks it goes.

Frequently asked

Common questions

How is this different from a code audit?

Code audits tell you what's wrong with your code. We tell you what your code means for your business. We answer questions about risk, knowledge, cost, and velocity — not code formatting.

Do you need to talk to our engineers?

One 30-minute call with a stakeholder. That's it. We work from the code, not from interviews. People forget. Code doesn't.

What if our documentation is sparse?

Most documentation is. That's actually useful data — the gap between what's documented and what exists tells its own story. Our tooling works from the code first.

How do you handle security?

Read-only access, always. We never write to your systems. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. We can work within your VPN. SOC 2 compliant.

What does it cost?

Fixed-price engagement scoped to your codebase. The quote depends on the number of repositories and the complexity of the system. You get a firm number before we start, and the price doesn't change.

How long until we get results?

Two weeks from access. Week one is mapping. Week two is analysis and delivery. The executive briefing happens at the end of week two.

How we engage

A standard engagement runs two weeks.

What We Are Not

We don't write code, manage your engineering team, or sell you a transformation roadmap. Our only interest is an accurate picture — which is exactly why you can trust it. What happens next is your decision, made with the right information for the first time.

Ready to get started?

One conversation. We'll tell you if we can help.

Schedule a Call