SpellWare

Services

Open Source and Developer Experience.

Engineering capacity for the projects and tools your developers depend on.

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What is included.

  • Maintenance, releases and dependency upkeep
  • Issue triage and contributor management
  • Documentation and developer tooling
  • Integrations, SDKs and sample applications

Best for: developer-tool and API companies with an open source presence.

What you receive.

A member of our team acting as your dedicated Project Manager.

  • Contribution guidelines, the files and workflows that make contributing possible, and documentation for contributors
  • Issue triage
  • Training and onboarding for your maintainers
  • Work with your maintainers to deliver effective and meaningful code reviews

We can offer this for closed-source projects with internal teams too, if you want it.

Example projects.

These are rough estimates to help you gauge scale, based on typical projects. They are not quotes, and every project is different. We provide a quote during your introductory meeting, once we understand the scope of your work. Estimates do not include taxes or third-party costs such as hosting and licences.

  • A project manager for an active projectaround $5,000 a month
  • Taking over a stalled projectaround $10,000 a month
  • A dedicated, full-time lead managing your open-source posture across all of your repositoriesaround $20,000 a month

Monthly figures show typical fees for ongoing work of that size. The hours your retainer covers are set out in your contract, and retainer contracts have a minimum term of 12 months.

One-off setup projects, such as contribution guidelines, issue and pull request templates, workflows and contributor documentation, are quoted separately under Custom Software.

Your account executive.

Every client has a dedicated account executive, who is your liaison with the company. They are responsible for delivering the work and for keeping communication clear, and they escalate to Naomi whenever it is needed.

Retainer contracts run Monday to Friday. If you want weekend work, you can exchange it for two consecutive weekdays off, because we do not split days. A premium applies, which we negotiate when you tell us you intend to staff weekends.

How it is arranged.

Ongoing maintenance is typically arranged as a monthly engagement. A discrete build, such as a new SDK, is scoped as a fixed project. Every engagement is scoped in writing, so you know what is included before work begins.

Start by sending a project enquiry. If it looks like a fit, we schedule a short introductory call to evaluate it, and we do not invoice for that call.

How we work

Clear scope, steady delivery, honest reporting.

  1. Send an enquiry

    Tell us about your community or project. We typically reply within 3 to 5 business days.

  2. Intake call

    If it looks like a fit, we schedule an introductory call at the next available time. We arrange it ourselves, and we do not charge for it.

  3. Quote

    We provide a quote during that meeting, once we understand the scope of your work.

  4. Agreement

    No work begins until a written service agreement is signed. We begin at the start of the contract term.

  5. Delivery

    A dedicated account executive, a weekly update and a single place to ask questions. Confidentiality is included at no cost.

  6. Review

    We look at the results with you, adjust the plan, and decide together whether to continue, change or stop.

Related past work.

Examples of this kind of work, with the results and the people who wrote about it.

Questions

Questions we are often asked.

These answers describe how we usually work. The binding terms of any engagement are set out in your written service agreement.

Do you also write code and fix bugs?

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What access do you need to our project?

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Can you take over a project we no longer have time to maintain?

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How do you handle conflicts between contributors?

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How much does it cost, and how do you bill?

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What are the deposit and invoicing terms?

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Is there a minimum term?

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How soon can you start?

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Who will do the work, and can we meet them first?

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How many hours does a retainer cover, and can we buy more?

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What happens if something urgent comes up outside Monday to Friday?

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What access do you need, and how do you handle confidentiality?

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How do you report progress?

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How do we end a contract?

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Who owns the work?

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Browse every question

Most clients start with one and grow into another.

Community Operations

The day-to-day running of your community, so your team can stay focused on the product.

Community Strategy

A fixed-scope engagement that gives your community structure, policy and direction.

Custom Software

Purpose-built tools, scoped and delivered against clear milestones.

Codebase Cleanup

A one-off refactor of a codebase that was built quickly, so it is easier to maintain, faster and safer to run.

Professional Mentorship

Structured mentorship from experienced engineers and community professionals, for individuals building a career and for companies growing a team.

Ready to talk about Open Source and Developer Experience?

Tell us about your community or project, and we will tell you honestly whether we can help.

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