Frequently asked questions.

Mostly developer-tool and API companies that want to build or support a community, and large online communities that need dependable operations. We are usually a good fit when your product has developers as its users, you have a community or plan to build one, and your team needs more capacity than it has. We also take referrals from our network, and offer professional mentorship, through a cohort programme for individuals and an onboarding package for companies with several junior hires. If you are not sure whether you fit, ask us.

Ongoing work is typically arranged as a monthly engagement under a retainer contract, which has a minimum term of 12 months. Strategy work and custom builds are scoped as fixed projects. In every case we agree the scope in writing first, and we quote on request after an introductory call. We schedule that call after your project enquiry, and it is free.

Pricing is specific to each client. Each service page shows example projects with rough prices to help you gauge scale, but these are estimates, not quotes. We provide a quote during your introductory meeting, once we understand the scope of the work. We bill monthly, on net-30 terms.

Yes. Confidentiality terms are available on request, and we are happy to work under yours or ours.

Our standard response time for enquiries is 7 to 10 business days, and we typically reply within 3 to 5.

We reply to messages and hold scheduled calls and meetings Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 21:00 Pacific Time. Our standard response time for enquiries is still 7 to 10 business days, and we typically reply within 3 to 5.

We are based in Vancouver, Washington, in the United States, and work with clients remotely.

Join our Discord community and post in the support forums, where our team and members answer questions. For anything private, email [email protected].

Yes. Our code is published under our software licence on GitHub, and our documentation is public at docs.spellware.dev.

Discord, Slack, Reddit, GitHub, Bluesky, Twitter, LinkedIn, Twitch, YouTube, Tumblr, and whichever platform you need.

We do not replace existing staff, unless you choose to remove staff when you hire us. With your agreement, we may remove existing staff members and onboard new ones where that is needed to stay aligned with your vision and plan.

We are highly experienced and specially trained in incident response. After a large-scale incident, we compile a post-mortem to share with your team, and to share publicly with your approval.

We track industry-standard metrics such as member join rate, member activation and retention, and trending topics.

The cadence is set mainly by the needs of the community. We have found that letting customers mandate a specific cadence hurts the success of their programmes, so we base it on what the community data actually show.

The length varies with the scope of the work. We typically need whatever current data you have on the health of your community, and any data that helps us understand your userbase.

As many as it takes for you to be satisfied. We reserve the right to end a discussion thread that devolves into bikeshedding, because we want to deliver quality work, not get stuck on nitpicking.

Typically a full plan document, with instructions for rolling out your changes. We can teach workshops to help onboard your staff to the changes, at an additional cost that is rolled into your contract when we negotiate it.

We typically do not. We are happy to explore one-off implementations as part of this package, such as setting up the channel and role lists in a Discord server. Anything that needs long-term support requires a retainer contract.

We need to read and run your codebase before we can price a cleanup honestly. The assessment gives you a written report of what we find, ranked by impact, and a quote for the cleanup. You pay for the report through the assessment fee, and it is yours to keep whether or not you go ahead with the cleanup.

We invoice the assessment immediately after the introductory call, once we have finalised the quote for it. We begin the assessment when the invoice is paid. The assessment and the cleanup are separate line items, and the assessment fee is not credited against the cleanup.

No. We fix common security problems that we find while we refactor, such as leaked secrets, outdated dependencies and unsafe input handling, and we report what we found. This is not a penetration test or a compliance audit, and we cannot guarantee that your software is free of vulnerabilities.

No. We keep what works and change the rest in small steps that your team can review. Behaviour stays the same unless we agree a change in writing. If we think that only a rewrite will help, we will tell you in the assessment.

No. The code can come from AI tools, contractors or a rushed first version. What matters is that it works, that your team understands it, and that it can be changed safely.

Not as part of this service. New features are scoped separately, as custom software.

Whatever you need. We stay up to date with industry standards, and we can adopt new or lesser-known technologies to work with the stack your company already uses.

Any time that day. Check-ins are Monday to Friday, and you do not need to post at weekends.

Write what you did on Friday.

Tell us in your channel if something gets in the way. Check-ins are part of the programme's participation standards, so persistently missing them can be treated as not meeting those standards under the terms.

Every roadmap defines its own finish line, written as a "Done when" statement that ends "This is graduation." For example:

• "Done when: You hold a backend, full-stack or DevOps role and your income no longer depends on one person. This is graduation."
• "Done when: You hold an offer that meets your goal. This is graduation."
• "Done when: You hold an offer for your first software development role. This is graduation."

Yes. We may update your roadmap as your progress and goals change.

No. We do not guarantee employment, job placement or specific career outcomes.

Yes, as long as you tell us. Time off on its own does not pause your monthly payments. If you will be away for more than a month, you can ask us to archive your mentorship items, including your dedicated channel and your project repository. Your access to them is suspended while they are archived, we do not invoice those months, and we restore everything when you return. Time away can last up to three months.

We send invoices by email, and you pay by card through Stripe. Stripe adds any VAT that applies.

Yes. As this is an educational programme, we will gladly make reasonable accommodations on request. Please submit your request in writing to [email protected].

Follow our Community Disciplinary Appeals Policy.

Your channel is for supporting you through your mentorship, so personal advice and guidance are not what it is for, unless they relate to your job search or career work.

You, Naomi and our other administrators. Nobody else can.

No. Your roadmap is built for you and is confidential, and the internal programme documents are proprietary. Please do not share them.

Every check-in gets a response, and questions are answered as time allows. We do not watch the channel around the clock, so please allow time.

Yes. Live sessions are booked and billed as standard meetings, with no discount for mentees. You can book one here.

Yes, and it applies to the whole programme. You can read our Code of Conduct in the documentation.