What the work looks like
Rescues, migrations, and changes to running systems — each one a problem, a reversible-steps approach, and an outcome.
Most of these engagements share a shape: a system that matters is in trouble, a rewrite would be too big a bet, and the work happens in small, reversible steps while the business keeps running. Here are a few, told through what clients said about them.
Multiple apps moved to a new platform — quickly, and on budget
The problem
A company was running several applications on aging hosting with no modern build-and-deploy pipeline. The platform was holding the business back, and a full rewrite would have meant betting the system on one risky cutover.
The approach
Rather than rebuild, we migrated the apps to a new platform and stood up new CI/CD around them, moving in steps that could be tested and reversed. The existing systems kept running while the new path was proven out.
The outcome
The migration finished quickly and on budget, with the apps on modern infrastructure and a deployment process the team could rely on.
“David handled a migration of multiple apps to a new platform and new CI/CD, did it quickly and on budget. I wish I found them sooner, it would have saved me a ton of money.”
A broken Rails tool, recovered and brought back into service
The problem
A nonprofit depended on a custom tool built years earlier in Ruby on Rails. It had fallen into disrepair and stopped working — the kind of fragile, important, in-production code a team is afraid to touch.
The approach
We worked inside the existing system rather than replacing it: recovering the application, updating what had aged out, and verifying behavior as we went so the organization could keep relying on it.
The outcome
The tool was recovered and updated, and the organization came away ready to work with us again.
“The folks at Durable Programming did an exceptional job recovering and updating our broken tool (coded years ago in Ruby on Rails). Throughout the process they were responsive, patient, and communicative. We’ll definitely be a repeat customer!”
More engagements
A longer record of the work — legacy rescues, framework upgrades, performance fixes, and systems kept running for years. Each links to the full story.
A live SaaS, taken over and stabilized
Inherited an undocumented Laravel SaaS from a departing team, rebuilt the deploy pipeline, stabilized the codebase, and ran high-priority bug/feature work for ~8 months.
A behavioral health software firmA decade keeping a clinical product modern
Rails work on a clinical app for psychiatric care.
Spaced Repetition SystemsScaling a legal-tech SaaS under deadline
Solo Rails developer who scaled a legal-tech SaaS for a 700-seat institutional launch, upgraded the framework, and untangled a broken Stripe billing layer under deadline.
QED FoundationReviving an app with no source code
Took over a nonprofit education-assessment Rails app with no source handoff, rebuilt the broken flows, moved it to cost-saving AWS, and maintained it for ~2.5 years.
William S. Hein & Co.A legacy Rails fleet, containerized and upgraded
A small team with no Ruby depth handed us their legacy Rails fleet: emergency Docker containerization, then a 3.2 → Rails 8 upgrade across four apps, relied on for 18+ months.
Field-service / facilities-management company (confidential)Sole developer on a legacy field-service app
Legacy Rails field-service app: break/fix under pressure, peak-load tuning, proactive CVE patching, and server ops.
ACA-compliance software company (confidential)A trusted hand in a compliance-sensitive system
Outside Rails collaborator on a production ACA-compliance app — IRS forms, validation correctness, and CI — with every PR reviewed and approved by the client lead over five months.
Confidential (home-services marketplace startup)A two-sided marketplace, shipped and live
Shipped a two-sided marketplace from pre-launch to a live consumer product in about a month, then ran it in production and handled real user support.
Schooner Olad & Cutter OwlA custom payment app, and conduct under pressure
Built a custom iPad payment app wrapping a sailing tour's Rails booking site, then absorbed the overrun on a vendor-forced SDK rewrite to keep the client through it.
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