Custom software development
Custom software, owned from idea to production.
We design, build, verify and run the application your business actually needs. AI agents do the work inside a governed workflow, and you hold the approval gates.
Start a project- governed states per run
- 9
- human gates, every run
- 2
- of transitions in the audit log
- 100%
What you get from custom software built this way
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One partner, no handover
Idea, architecture, build, QA, deployment and operation sit with the same people. There is no handover document because there is no handover.
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A record, not a status report
Every requirement, design, implementation, QA result and review is an artifact in a workflow run. What shipped is what the record says shipped.
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You approve before anything is built
Design approval is a human gate. The run waits for you. Scope creep has nowhere to hide because the PRD is the scope.
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Checked twice before release
Automated QA writes a report, then a person reviews. Failures escalate instead of slipping into production.
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Typed, tested, deployed under release controls
Release candidates leave the loop only after both gates pass. Deployment and monitoring are part of the engagement, not an add-on.
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No lock-in by accident
The platform that holds your record is public. Self-host it whenever you like and keep every artifact.
When custom software is the right call
Off-the-shelf tools do not fail overnight. They show signs as your needs outgrow them.
- 01
Your team works around the software
Spreadsheets, shadow processes and manual re-keying have grown up around a tool that was meant to remove them.
- 02
Integration is a constant battle
Your CRM, billing and operations systems disagree about what is true, and someone reconciles them by hand.
- 03
Per-seat pricing scales against you
The subscription bill grows with headcount while the features your team uses stay the same.
- 04
The process is the product
Your pricing logic, approvals or compliance rules are specific enough that no vendor will ever model them.
- 05
You cannot answer "who changed this, and when"
Audit trails, approvals and data residency are requirements your current tools were not built for.
- 06
The last agency left you a zip file
You own code you cannot operate, with no record of why it was built the way it was.
Do two or more of these apply? Tell us which ones and we reply with how we would run it.
What we build
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Web applications and portals
Customer portals, B2B platforms and back-office systems with the data model, API and interface designed together.
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Internal tools
The operations software your team actually runs the business on, built around the process instead of the other way round.
Read more -
APIs and integrations
Documented interfaces that connect the systems you have, so there is one source of truth instead of three.
Read more -
AI features and agents
Bounded agents that research, classify, draft and act inside your product, with their work reviewable in the record.
Read more -
MVPs and new products
A first release scoped at discovery, verified before launch and built to grow rather than be rewritten.
Read more -
Modernisation
Legacy systems moved forward in governed steps, each one approved, verified and logged.
Read more
How a custom software engagement runs
- 01
Discovery
A week with the people who own the problem. We write the feature request as the first artifact of the run and agree what done means before anything is designed.
In the record feature_request, scope, success measures
- 02
PRD and design package
Research, requirements and design are produced inside the workflow and land in the record as artifacts you can read, comment on and reject.
In the record research_report, prd, design_package
- 03
Design approval
A human gate. The run waits until you approve the design package. Nothing is built that the record does not say is being built.
In the record design_approval transition, logged with the approver
- 04
Development
Implementation runs as jobs on runners in short cycles. You see every transition as it happens, with the implementation package growing in the record.
In the record implementation_package
- 05
Automated QA and manual review
Automated QA runs first and writes a report. Manual review is the second human gate. Failures escalate instead of slipping through.
In the record qa_report, review_report
- 06
Release and operation
A release candidate leaves the loop only after both gates pass. We deploy it, monitor it and operate it, and the next request starts the next run.
In the record release_candidate, released
Sydeso against the usual options
An honest look at how a partner engagement on the platform compares with a typical agency and with building in-house.
| Item | In-house | Typical agency | Sydeso |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who owns delivery | Your team, alongside everything else | The agency, until handover | Sydeso, through production and after |
| Where the record lives | Tickets, chat and documents | Status reports and a handover document | Artifacts in a workflow run, with an audit log |
| How AI is used | Whatever each developer uses | Undisclosed, or a pitch | Agents run bounded jobs inside governed states |
| Who approves | Whoever is available | The agency PM | You, at two human gates on every run |
| After launch | Your on-call rota | A support contract, if offered | We operate production and start the next run |
| Can you take it in-house later | It already is | Depends on the handover | Yes: the platform is public and the record is yours |
| Price | Salaries and tooling | Day rates or fixed price | Per project, scoped at discovery |
Three ways to work with us.
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For a team that needs the application built and run
Partner engagement
We own the application end to end: discovery, PRD, design, build, QA, release and operation. You hold the approval gates.
- Priced per project, scoped at discovery
- Your gates, our runs
- We operate production after launch
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For a team that wants to run AI-driven delivery itself
Hosted platform
Your team and your feature requests on the Sydeso platform, with managed runners, storage, backups and upgrades operated by us.
- Per workspace, monthly
- Managed runners
- Support from the people who built it
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For a team that keeps everything on its own infrastructure
Self-hosted
Clone the repository and run the same platform on Postgres, Redis and S3-compatible storage. Free under BUSL-1.1, AGPL-3.0 from 2030.
- Free
- Your runners, your data
- Community support on GitHub
Questions
- How much does custom software development cost with Sydeso?
- Per project, against the scope written in the PRD at the end of discovery. Discovery itself is a week. Ongoing operation after launch is a separate monthly engagement. Tell us the scope and we reply with a number.
- How long does a custom software project take?
- Discovery takes a week. From there the run moves through design, approval, development, QA and review in short cycles, and the first release candidate is usually weeks away rather than months. The record shows exactly where the run is at any time.
- Who writes the code, people or AI?
- Both, and the record says which. Agents run bounded jobs on runners for research, design, implementation and QA. People hold the two gates, design approval and manual review, on every run.
- Can we keep our own stack?
- Yes. The platform is the delivery process, not a framework. We choose the technology for the application at discovery, with your team and your hiring market in mind.
- How quickly do you reply?
- By email, with how we would run the work, not a call to book a call. Send one paragraph about what should ship first and you get a written answer.
- Do we have to use the Sydeso platform?
- Every partner engagement runs on it, because the record it keeps is how we work. You can host it yourself from day one or move to self-hosting later; the platform is public under BUSL-1.1.
- What happens to the work if we stop?
- Everything is in the record as artifacts: requirements, design packages, implementation packages, QA and review reports. You keep all of it, and the platform that reads it is yours to run.
Tell us the feature.
One paragraph about what should ship first. We reply by email with how we would run it, and what it would cost.
Start a project