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Handing over a legacy project: a checklist
Published 2026-08-03 · Updated 2026-08-03
Gather these five things before a takeover starts, and the audit will be faster and cheaper.
What should I gather before contacting a new developer?
- Repository access — even a read-only zip of the code is a start; git history if it exists.
- Server/hosting access — control panel or SSH credentials for where it currently runs.
- Database export or access — structure matters as much as data.
- Any existing documentation, even outdated — a stale document is still faster to correct than starting from nothing.
- A list of known issues — what is currently broken or behaving unexpectedly, from your side, not the code’s.
What does a fair audit process look like?
A fixed-fee audit (typically two to four days) that ends in a written report: the state of the code, security concerns found, and an honest recommendation on fixing versus rebuilding — delivered whether or not you continue with that developer afterward.
Tell me about your project.
A couple of sentences about the problem is enough. WhatsApp is fastest.