StackRescue
Service · 01
Technical Debt Audit
Identify the biggest engineering risks in your platform across code, infrastructure, and process.
Codebase liability audit · v4.0
Turn legacy code into a modern, maintainable platform.
We use AI-led engineering to audit your codebase, draft the fixes, and ship modernisation packages at 40–60% the cost of a traditional consultancy — without distracting your team.
- 10×
- Audit speed
- 40–60%
- Lower cost
- 100%
- Senior reviewed
audit · 882-QX
$ stackrescue scan --repo /platform-core
[ scanning ] 412,042 LOC across 18 services…
[ alert ] Framework EOL · 3 services past end-of-life
[ alert ] N+1 query pattern · billing module L241–L302
[ info ] CI median runtime · 14m 22s (industry: 5m)
[ info ] Test coverage on revenue paths · 38%
Audit complete · 84 findings · £68k est. remediation
[ delivery ] AI-drafted migration · senior-reviewed · fixed fee
Stack-agnostic · we audit any codebase
- Django
- Rails
- Node.js
- Laravel
- .NET
- Java / Spring
- Go
- Vue
- React
- Angular
- Next.js
- AWS · GCP · Azure
01The Problem
Technical debt is not just messy code. It is business risk.
Old codebases create problems that compound over time. Find out where your biggest risks are before they reach the board.
01 · Risk
Slower feature delivery
Every change ripples through fragile, undocumented modules.
02 · Risk
Fragile releases
Brittle deploys, manual steps, and rollbacks during business hours.
03 · Risk
Security vulnerabilities
Unpatched CVEs in stagnant library ecosystems.
04 · Risk
Unsupported dependencies
Frameworks past end-of-life with no upgrade path planned.
05 · Risk
Rising infrastructure cost
Over-provisioned cloud spend with no cost-to-value map.
06 · Risk
Key-person dependency
Production knowledge that lives in one engineer's head.
07 · Risk
Expensive onboarding
New hires take months to ship safely; tribal knowledge gates work.
08 · Risk
Poor test coverage
Revenue-critical paths shipping on hope and manual QA.
02The Process
A clear report. A practical roadmap. A fixed-fee path to improvement.
Step 01
Analyse
We review your codebase, dependencies, architecture, deployment process, and infrastructure. AI accelerates the breadth; senior engineers verify the depth.
Step 02
Report
You receive an indexed technical debt report with risk scoring, priorities, and estimated effort. No vague advice — every finding is traceable to a file, line, or process.
Step 03
Fix (AI-led delivery)
AI generates the migrations, refactors and missing tests against the prioritised roadmap. Senior engineers review every change and ship it as a fixed-fee package — typically 40–60% cheaper than a traditional consultancy doing the same work by hand.
03Services
Six engagements. One discipline.
Each engagement is scoped, fixed-fee, and delivered by a senior engineer — never resold to a junior.
Service · 02
Legacy Framework Migration
Upgrade ageing Django, Vue, React, Node, PHP, Laravel, Rails, or Python projects to current, supported versions.
Service · 03
Cloud & DevOps Review
Improve deployment, observability, CI/CD, reliability, and cloud spend on AWS, GCP, or hybrid stacks.
Service · 04
Test Suite Recovery
Add missing test coverage around revenue-critical workflows so teams can ship safely and refactor with confidence.
Service · 05
Security & Dependency Cleanup
Remove unsupported packages, known vulnerabilities, and risky legacy dependencies from the supply chain.
Service · 06
Acquisition Technical Due Diligence
Assess a software business before acquisition. Quantify cost-to-fix and protect your IRR from hidden technical rot.
04Method
AI does the work. Senior engineers own the judgement.
We don’t just use AI to scan faster — we use it to draft the migrations, refactors and tests themselves. Senior engineers review every change before it ships. That’s why the work costs 40–60% less than a traditional consultancy doing the same scope by hand.
Stage 01 · AI scan
Breadth without missing detail
- Dependency analysis across the supply chain
- Code mapping & module duplication detection
- Test gap detection on revenue paths
- Change-impact triage & migration planning
Stage 02 · AI drafts the fixes
Migrations written, not just recommended
- Generated migration diffs for every prioritised finding
- Refactor patches for duplicated & fragile modules
- Missing tests scaffolded around critical flows
- Updated documentation & runbooks per change
Stage 03 · Senior engineer ships
Judgement that compounds
- Every AI-drafted PR reviewed line-by-line
- Architecture decisions & trade-offs owned by humans
- Final recommendations to the board
- Fixed-fee delivery against defined scope
- 10×
- Audit speed
- 40–60%
- Lower cost vs traditional consultancy
- 100%
- Senior-engineer reviewed
05The Deliverable
What the audit report includes.
An indexed binder of findings — every issue traceable, every recommendation costed, every fix optional.
- 01 Executive summary●
- 02 Technical debt score●
- 03 Dependency risk●
- 04 Framework age●
- 05 Security issues●
- 06 Deployment risk●
- 07 Test coverage●
- 08 Infrastructure concerns●
- 09 Quick wins●
- 10 30 / 60 / 90 day roadmap●
- 11 Fixed-fee remediation options●
Executive summary
Platform Core · Audit Findings
Analysis of the Django monolithic core reveals significant database contention and an expired security baseline. Recommendations include migrating signals to an asynchronous event bus and decoupling the reporting engine before Q4.
0.82
Risk · High
Core API latency
p95 · 1,420 ms
0.45
Risk · Med
Vue 2 deprecation
EOL · 31 Dec
0.12
Risk · Low
CI pipeline caching
Quick win · 2d
Findings register
- 01Django 3.2 — security support expiredCritical
- 02N+1 query pattern in billing/views.pyHigh
- 03Vue 2 reaching end-of-life (Q4)High
- 04Deploy pipeline median 14m — no cachingMed
- 05Test coverage on revenue paths · 38%Med
- 06Unused micro-dependencies in package.jsonLow
Debt score
84 / 100
Perf. drag
12.5%
Est. remediation
420 h
06Pricing
Three audit tiers. All fixed fee.
We work on a fixed-fee basis. No hourly billing, no open-ended contracts. You pay for outcomes, not effort.
Starter Audit
£2,500
fixed fee · For smaller products or a single repository.
- One codebase
- Dependency review
- Architecture review
- Risk summary
- Prioritised recommendations
Most common
Growth Audit
£5,000
fixed fee · For active SaaS products with production users.
- Multiple repositories
- Deployment review
- Infrastructure review
- Security review
- Technical debt roadmap
- Fixed-fee implementation estimate
Deep Audit
from £10,000
scoped per platform · For larger platforms, acquisition due diligence, or high-risk systems.
- Full platform review
- Infrastructure & data review
- Engineering process review
- Detailed remediation plan
- Board-level summary
08Economics
Why we’re 40–60% cheaper.
A traditional consultancy bills humans for every line of code they touch. We bill outcomes — because AI handles the volume and seniors only show up for the decisions that matter.
Reason 01
AI does the grunt work
Migrations, refactors, test scaffolding and documentation. Hours of senior-engineer time become minutes of compute.
Reason 02
Seniors only on judgement
Architecture calls, trade-offs and sign-off. No junior consultants billed at senior rates to make up the hours.
Reason 03
Fixed scope, no drag
You pay for the outcome defined in the audit, not the time it takes us to deliver it. Overruns are our problem.
Same outcome. 40–60% less cost. Delivered in weeks, not quarters.
07Delivery
From report to resolution.
Most audits end with a fixed-fee proposal to remove the highest-value technical debt. You decide which packages to greenlight; we deliver against a defined scope and date.
Discuss a Modernisation PackagePrices reflect AI-led delivery with senior-engineer review — not agency day rates. Expect 40–60% less than a traditional consultancy for equivalent scope.
- Upgrade legacy framework (Django, Rails, Laravel, .NET)£8–14k
- Migrate frontend (Vue 2 → 3, Angular.js → modern, jQuery → React)£12–28k
- Modernise Node.js services (EOL versions → LTS + ESM)£6–12k
- Replace fragile deploys with CI/CD£7–16k
- Add tests around revenue-critical flows£6–12k
- Reduce cloud spend & right-size infrastructure£5–10k
- Remove unsupported dependencies & CVEs£4–9k
Ranges indicative · AI-led delivery · Senior review on every PR
08Fit
Who this is for — and who it isn’t.
Good fit
- SaaS companies with ageing platforms
- CTOs with too much backlog to modernise properly
- Founders preparing for investment or sale
- Buyers evaluating software acquisitions
- Any stack: Django, Rails, Node, .NET, Laravel, Java, Vue, React, Angular
- Businesses with key-person dependency
Not a fit
- Brand-new startups with no users
- Teams wanting cheap code generation
- Companies unwilling to give codebase access
- Projects with no commercial value to protect
09FAQ
Common questions.
10Next step
Find out where your biggest risks are.
A 30-minute discovery call is the fastest way to scope an audit that fits your platform and risk profile.