Human technical escalation for AI & automation builders
You've built something with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or n8n. It nearly works. Now you're on hour six of asking the AI to fix the same error and it's started changing code that was fine. Send me the problem and I'll tell you what's actually wrong.
Senior developer · 20+ years · UK · Fixed price from £35
These are the things people actually send me.
None of these mean you did it wrong. They mean you've hit the point where the problem lives between the parts of your system — and an AI looking at one file at a time can't see it.
Start small. Scale up only if it's worth it.
from £35
One problem, one system. I investigate until I understand the actual cause — not the symptom.
Most common
quoted up front
Once I know what's wrong, I'll quote a fixed price to put it right. No open-ended hourly bills.
from £99/month
You don't need to employ a senior developer. You need access to one when things break.
What you're trying to do, what's happening instead, the error, and what you've already tried. I'll send a short form so nothing gets missed.
I read the system, not just the error. Most of the time the message is pointing somewhere other than the cause — that's why it's been so hard to shift.
Always one of three, and I'll tell you which up front.
Small enough that I sorted it — plus an explanation of what was wrong.
I've found the cause and written down exactly what needs to change.
The repair is a bigger job. You get the diagnosis and a fixed price to finish it.
You never get "I couldn't work it out, good luck." Even when the fix is beyond the scope of what you've paid for, you leave knowing what's wrong.
I'm Chris. I've been a professional software developer for over twenty years — senior developer, contractor and company director — across backend systems, APIs, cloud infrastructure, web applications and the unglamorous business of keeping other people's software running.
The useful part isn't the technology list. It's that I've spent that entire career looking at systems that don't behave as expected, working out how the pieces actually interact, and finding the real cause. Unfamiliar systems are the job.
That happens to be exactly what AI coding tools are worst at. They're superb at producing code and genuinely poor at understanding a whole system they can only see in fragments. That's the gap I work in.
Regular ground: n8n · REST APIs · webhooks · OAuth & authentication · AWS (Lambda, S3, API Gateway, DynamoDB, CloudFront, Amplify) · Azure · Docker · CI/CD · Node · Python · .NET / C# · JavaScript & TypeScript · React, Angular, Vue · SQL & NoSQL · WordPress · Umbraco · Claude & OpenAI integrations · AI agents
You still get the diagnosis, which is usually the part that's actually missing. If the problem turns out to be somewhere I can't help — a third-party service, a platform limitation, a commercial decision — I'll tell you straight rather than bill you for guesswork.
Often not. An error message, a workflow export or a repo link goes a long way. Where I do need access I'll ask for the narrowest permission that lets me investigate — read-only first — and credentials only through a password manager, never over email or chat.
No. Most of what I see was built this way, and a lot of it is more capable than people give themselves credit for. Something being tangled isn't a character flaw — it's what happens when a tool that can't see the whole system keeps editing it.
I'll respond and start investigating within the time promised for your plan — normally one to two working days. I won't promise a fix by a deadline before I know what's wrong; nobody can do that honestly. What I will do is tell you what I'm seeing as I go.
Yes, but it isn't what I lead with. If a job turns out to need something building rather than fixing, I'll quote it separately so you can decide.
That's some of my favourite work. You keep the client relationship; I handle the awkward technical parts — unusual API auth, AWS, custom backend, deployment. I stay invisible and I don't approach your clients. Ever.
Monday to Friday, 09:00–17:30 UK time. I don't offer out-of-hours emergency cover — I'd rather be honest about that than promise something at 2am and not deliver it.
Tell me what's happening. If I'm not the right person, I'll say so — that costs you nothing.
Email me with:
Or email chris@chriscodesstuff.com directly.
I'll come back to you within one working day. No newsletter, no follow-up sequence.