AI Build Partner · Co-development for vibe-coded apps
Building with AI? Don't build alone.
Plan it, build it, ship it, improve it, with a senior engineer alongside you the whole way. AI Build Partner gives you live help and co-development while your app is still taking shape: we help plan what's next, build and fix alongside you, review what changed, and release it to production monthly or fortnightly. Keep prompting yourself, hand the development to us, or a bit of both.
A senior engineer alongside you
Development hours included
Production releases included
Why a build partner
While you're building, the app never sits still.
AI tools are great at producing code and poor at judgment. A build partner brings that judgment at every stage: helping plan what to build next, building and fixing with you, reviewing what changed, and getting it safely into production.
1
Every prompt changes the app
A new feature can quietly open a new route, add a table or loosen an access rule. An app that was safe last month isn't automatically safe this month.
2
AI tools are weakest where it matters
Access control, secrets, validation and payment hooks are exactly the parts AI coding tools get wrong, and the parts that hurt most when they do.
3
Your keyboard, ours, or both
Keep prompting in Lovable, Bolt, Replit, Base44, Cursor or Claude Code and let us review and release it, or hand the ongoing development to us. Most clients end up somewhere in between.
Plans & pricing
Two paces. One app. No lock-in.
Both plans include scheduled reviews, a block of development hours on top, and production releases handled by us. The difference is pace and included hours.
Build Partner 8
8 hours of assistance, monthly release
$1,200
per month, ex. GST (discounted from $1,800)
Launch offer · First 10 customers
For apps in active development at a steady pace: a review, a block of development and a production release every month.
- Everything in Build Partner 8, for three months included at a discounted rate
- 3 month commit - billed in advance as $3,600 - switched to month-to-month after that
- Keep your discounted $1,200 monthly price, if you choose to continue beyond month 3
Build Partner 8
8 hours of assistance, monthly release
$1,800
per month, ex. GST
For apps in active development at a steady pace: a review, a block of development and a production release every month.
- 1 review each month
- Up to 8 development hours, on top of the review
- 1 production release a month, handled by us (monthly releases)
- 30-minute monthly update and strategy session with a project manager
- 30 days' notice to change plans or stop - no long-term lock-in
Build Partner 16
16 hours of assistance, fortnightly release
$2,800
per month, ex. GST
For apps moving fast: a review, development and a production release every fortnight, so changes reach your users sooner.
- 2 reviews a month, one each fortnight
- Up to 16 development hours, on top of the reviews
- 2 production releases a month, handled by us (fortnightly releases)
- 1 hour monthly update, strategy and roadmap session with a project manager
- 30 days' notice to change plans or stop - no long-term lock-in
All prices are in Australian dollars and exclude GST. One app per plan (its front end and back end count as one app). Invoices are monthly, in advance, due within 7 days. The launch offer is limited to the first 10 customers and is the only discount on this product. You can switch plans up or down with 30 days' notice, from the start of the next month. Full details are in the AI Build Partner terms and conditions.
What's checked
Reviewed by humans, not just AI.
Every review cycle, your app is checked by our development and QA teams, not just another AI pass. Industry-grade automated and AI-assisted review tooling runs first, so our people spend their time on what tools can't judge: whether your access rules match your business, and whether the app works the way your users actually use it. Findings come with a short written update, a priority order, and the fixes already done or on their way.
Development team
Senior engineers read the code
What changed, why it changed and what it touches. Access rules, secrets and integrations are checked against how your business actually works, not just whether the code runs.
QA team
Tested like your users will
Our QA team works through each release as real users in each role, including the awkward edges and unhappy paths nobody prompted for.
AI-assisted tooling
Industry-grade scanning, every cycle
Automated security scanning, dependency checks and AI-assisted code review run on every cycle and catch the obvious at speed. Our engineers verify every finding, so you get fewer false alarms and nothing important waved through.
What every review covers
Changes
What's new since last time
New routes, new tables, new prompts and new integrations, reviewed before they become the problem.
Access
Who can see and change what
Row-level rules and permissions tested the way an attacker would, not the way the demo does.
Secrets
Keys that shouldn't be public
Anything exposed to the browser, committed to the repo, or shared between users.
Resilience
Validation and errors
The paths your users actually take, including the unhappy ones, not just the happy path.
Integrations
Third-party hooks
Payment gateways, auth providers and AI endpoints, and exactly what each one can reach.
Dependencies
Packages and updates
Outdated or vulnerable libraries flagged, and patched inside your development hours.
Auth
Sign-in and sessions
Password resets, magic links, session expiry and role changes: the flows attackers try first.
OWASP
Checked against the OWASP Top 10
Broken access control, injection, insecure design, security misconfiguration and the rest of the OWASP Top 10, the most common ways web applications are attacked. Rechecked as your app changes, not just once.
Privacy Act
Australian Privacy Principles
If your app collects personal information, APP 11 requires you to take reasonable steps to protect it. Every cycle we flag where data is exposed, over-collected or stored insecurely, before it becomes a notifiable data breach.
Hosting
Australian hosting available
Need your data to stay onshore? We can deploy your app to Australian-based hosting, with monitoring set up from day one, and handle your releases there.
Scalability
How many users can your app support?
App scalability is a delicate balance between efficiencies in the code, appropriate hosting infrastructure, and close ongoing monitoring. We've got you covered for all three.
Cost
Performance and spend drift
Queries, queues and token spend that grew quietly while everyone was busy shipping.
How it works
From first look to a steady release rhythm
The first month goes deep. After that, each review follows what's changed, so the hours go into building and fixing rather than re-reading code that stayed untouched.
1
Onboarding: agree the plan
We map out your app's front end and back end, key features, value proposition, its user roles and its integrations, so both sides know exactly what the plan looks after. We work with you to understand where your app is today, and roadmap out where you're headed, so we can work alongside you with clearly understood, shared goals.
2
Prepare for Collaboration
We help you set up your development workspace for collaboration with our team. You keep using the tools you love, just the same as you did before - only now we can work alongside you.
3
We get to work
You keep working as you did before, and our team joins you on the journey. Every time someone makes a change, it goes to a shared repository, which our team will merge and reconcile as we go.
We meet with you perioidically along the way to share progress, raise questions, and gather feedback.
4
Built, fixed, shipped
Once we reach a key milestone, we run a full testing sweep of your app, then stage a proposed update for your approval. Once you sign off, we ship the update to production at an agreed time.
The fine print
The fine print, said plainly
No surprises in month two. Here's exactly how the plan works.
Out of hours, by arrangement
Standard pricing is all based on business hours. Releasing on a Saturday night? We're happy to do it, but it's priced separately and agreed in writing before anyone starts.
Nothing extra without your say-so
Anything beyond your plan is quoted or metered at our standard rates, and we ask before we bill.
Hours don't roll over
Time is measured in 30-minute blocks against your monthly hours, and unused hours don't carry into the next month. The plan buys a steady pace of work, not a bank of time for a future sprint. For larger builds, we offer scoped, quoted project options.
Releases at your plan's pace
Build Partner 8 includes one production release a month; Build Partner 16 includes two, one each fortnight. Any release can include an App Store or Google Play submission when a mobile release is involved. In those cases, the release timeline is subject to the App Store's review - so timelines need to factor that in.
One app per plan
Each Build Partner plan covers you for one app. This can be separate backend and frontend (for example, a mobile app and it's backend API). It doesn't cover a separate website, 3rd party systems, or other apps.
What's in scope will be clearly discussed and defined during onboarding.
Bigger builds are scoped separately
Features that fit inside your monthly hours just get done. Something bigger than that, like a separate app or a major rebuild, gets scoped and quoted on its own.
Not a penetration test
We check against the OWASP Top 10 and the Australian Privacy Principles and tell you honestly where you stand. A formal pentest should come from an independent third party, and we're happy to coordinate with them.
When it's done
Ready to call it finished?
When development slows down or stops, you don't need a build partner any more. Our app maintenance plans keep a finished app patched, backed up and monitored, for less than active development costs. We'll suggest the move when the pace of change says it's time.
When to move up
Need more than a couple of days a month?
When your app needs a full roadmap worked through rather than a monthly block of hours, the honest answer is a Managed Developer Placement: a dedicated senior developer embedded in your business, managed by our Brisbane team, on one fixed weekly rate. We'll tell you when we think that switch is worth making, even though it costs you more.
Client stories
Don't take our word for it.
Bianca
OnSchedule
“Working with Code Squirrel has been a fantastic experience! Their team is not only incredibly skilled but also highly responsive and professional. They took the time to understand our requirements and delivered exceptional results.”
Tiyana
Coast & Country Primary Care
“Efficient, reliable, professional, and extraordinarily knowledgeable team. No task or request was ever too hard. The team are truly remarkable.”
FAQs
AI Build Partner questions
Do I need an audit before I can take a plan?
No. Month 1 does the deep pass on the parts that matter most. If we think a full AI App Launch Audit is a better use of your money first, we'll say so plainly.
What if a review finds nothing to fix?
Then your hours go into building what's next, and you still get the written check. If you don't have plans for future features, you may want to consider our AI App Audit product, rather than Build Partner.
Can I switch plans?
Yes, up or down, with 30 days' notice. The change takes effect from the start of the next month.
Which tools and platforms do you work with?
Apps built with Lovable, Bolt, Replit, Base44, Cursor, Claude Code, v0, Windsurf, Firebase Studio and most other AI coding tools, along with their usual back ends such as Supabase and Firebase.
Who does the work?
A Code Squirrel engineer from our Brisbane-led team, with our usual project management, QA and architecture support behind them. You'll know who's looking after your app.
Is this a bot reviewing my code?
Automated tooling is part of it, and it's a decent first pass. The difference is the human review that follows, from both our development and QA teams. We understand and act on the results, and check things for ourselves. The human element also factors in how your business and app actually works.
Do you sign an NDA?
Yes. Every engagement is covered by a mutual NDA from day one, before you share any code or data.
Can you do the development for us, not just review it?
Yes. Your development hours can go on new features and improvements as well as fixes. Some clients keep prompting and use us to review and release; others hand the building to us entirely. Anything bigger than your monthly hours gets scoped and quoted separately.
What happens when my app is finished?
When development slows down or stops, move to one of our app maintenance plans. They're cheaper and less involved: updates, monitoring, backups and small fixes for an app that's done. Give us 30 days' notice and we'll handle the switch.
Keep building. We'll build it with you.
Book a free 30-minute chat with the engineer who would build alongside you. Bring the link, tell us what you've built it with and where you're taking it, and we'll tell you honestly which plan fits, or whether you need one at all.
