Vibe-Code Rescue

Your app worked. Until it didn't.

You built something real with an AI builder, and it got you further than anyone expected. Then it stopped getting closer. I audit AI-generated codebases and tell you exactly what's wrong, what it costs to fix, and whether it really needs the rewrite someone told you it needs.

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Does this sound familiar

You're not imagining it, and you're not alone.

A quarter of Y Combinator's Winter 2025 batch had codebases that were roughly 95% AI-generated. The wall you hit is the most-discussed problem in every builder community there is. It has a shape, and the shape is predictable.

It works on your screen and breaks on someone else’s.

Every new feature quietly breaks two old ones.

You’re not sure whether users can see each other’s data.

Something went wrong with a payment and you don’t know why.

The AI keeps rewriting files it shouldn’t touch.

You’ve been told it “needs a rewrite” and don’t know if that’s true.

You want to hire a developer but can’t tell a good one from a bad one.

It got to about 70% and then stopped getting closer.

What actually breaks

The same six things, almost every time.

AI builders share the same underlying models and the same default configurations, so they fail in the same places. Here is what I find, in roughly the order I find it.

Your database is readable by anyone

Supabase Row Level Security is off by default and AI builders rarely prompt for it. If RLS is disabled, the key shipped in your frontend can read every row in the table — every user, every record. This is the single most common finding, and it is usually a twenty-minute fix once someone tells you it exists.

Auth that only checks the front end

Hiding a page from the UI is not the same as protecting it. If the check happens in the browser and not in the API or a database policy, anyone can skip it by calling the endpoint directly. Generated code does this constantly because it looks correct in a demo.

Secrets in the client bundle

Service-role keys, Stripe secret keys and third-party API tokens end up in code that ships to the browser. They are visible in dev tools, and once they are public they are public — rotating them is part of the fix, not the whole of it.

Payments that double-charge or silently fail

Stripe webhooks need idempotency and signature verification. Generated integrations frequently have neither, so a retried webhook charges twice and a failed one leaves an order paid but unrecorded. You usually find out from a customer.

A schema that blocks your next three features

The data model gets shaped by whatever the first prompt happened to need. It works until you add teams, or roles, or history — then every new feature needs a migration nobody planned for, which is what “it needs a rewrite” usually means.

The same logic copied ten times

Duplicated code has been measured at roughly ten times prior rates in AI-generated codebases. Nothing is broken exactly, but a one-line change now has to be made in ten places and you will miss one. This is what makes the app feel like it fights you.

The rescue audit

5 days. A written answer. Yours either way.

You give me read access to the repository and ten minutes explaining what the app is meant to do. You get back a report written for someone who doesn't code.

A written report in plain language — no jargon, no assumed background.

Security findings ranked by how bad they are, with what to do about each.

A verdict on your database schema: fine, needs work, or needs replacing — and why.

Payment flow review if you take money: webhooks, retries, refunds, edge cases.

What breaks first under real traffic, and roughly at what point.

A prioritised fix list with an honest cost and time estimate per item.

A straight answer on whether it needs a rewrite. Usually it does not.

The part that matters

You keep the report whether or not you hire me to do the fixes.

Plenty of people take it to their own developer, and that is a completely fine outcome. It saves them a week of discovery and it means you are choosing your next step with real information instead of a sales pitch. The most common thing founders tell me they were afraid of is spending money and having nothing to show for it. This is the version where that can't happen.

What it costs

Fixed fees, published.

Rescue work sits between $1,000 and $10,000 across the market, and full rebuilds run $25,000 to $50,000. Anyone quoting you a rebuild before reading the code is guessing.

Rescue Audit

$1,500

5 business days

You need to know what you’re actually dealing with.

Full codebase and configuration review

Security, database, payments, stability

Written report with prioritised fixes

Honest cost and time estimates

Yours to keep, with or without me

Audit + Fix

$4,500

2 weeks

You want the dangerous things gone, now.

Everything in the Rescue Audit

Critical security issues fixed

Payment handling made correct

Deployed and verified in production

Handover call and written notes

Rescue Build

from $12,000

4–6 weeks

It needs to become real software.

Everything in Audit + Fix

Architecture rebuilt where it has to be

Tests around the parts that matter

Monitoring so you find out before customers do

Full GitHub handover and IP assignment

The audit fee is credited against the fix or build if you decide to go ahead. Scope is confirmed on a call before anything is invoiced.

Ownership

You own all of it. In writing.

Code goes into a GitHub repository in your name. IP is assigned to you in the contract. If we stop working together you keep the repository, the report, the infrastructure and the accounts, and you can hand all of it to any other developer without asking me.

This is worth asking every agency you talk to, not just me. Not owning your own code is one of the more common ways first-time founders get stuck, and it is much easier to settle before the work starts than after.

Who you'd be working with

One operator, and you talk to him.

I'm Hamza. I was a founding engineer at DietAI through a seven-figure exit, and I run Zapp Studios out of Houston. There is no account manager and no offshore team — the person who reads your code is the person who writes the report and the person who does the fixes.

Most of my work is building and running production software end to end: funnels, booking systems, payments, SMS automation, the operational apps behind them. One recent client went from roughly $200 to about $10K in monthly revenue in four months on a system I built and still run.

I'll be straight with you about the one thing you should weigh: rescue work is a newer line for me than growth engineering, so I'm pricing the audit to be an easy decision and letting the report speak for itself. If you want references for the build work, I'll give you them on the call.

Questions

Straight answers.

A fixed-fee audit is $1,500 and takes five business days. Fixing the critical issues typically runs $4,500 over two weeks. A full rescue build — where the architecture genuinely has to change — starts at $12,000 and takes four to six weeks. Across the market, rescue work generally lands between $1,000 and $10,000, and a ground-up rebuild from an agency more commonly runs $25,000 to $50,000. A rescue build costs less than that because it keeps whatever is already sound instead of starting again. If someone quotes you a rebuild before looking at the code, get a second opinion.

Find out what you're actually dealing with.

A 15-minute call, no charge. Bring the app and whatever you've been told about it. If the audit isn't the right next step I'll say so.

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Hamza Zulquernain · Zapp Studios · Houston, TX

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