The "Black Box" Problem: Why We Audit Before We Build

We hear the same request almost every week:

"I have a custom web app. It’s mostly working, but the original developer is gone. I just need you to fix a small bug in the checkout flow. Can you jump in today?"

The answer is: Not yet.

Not because we don't want to help, but because in software engineering, there is no such thing as an "isolated" fix—especially if we didn't write the code. Before we write a single line of new code, we have to understand what we are inheriting.

We have to open the "Black Box."

The New Risk: The Rise of "Vibe Coding"

In the past, "legacy code" usually meant cleaning up after a rushed freelancer. Today, we are seeing a new kind of technical debt: code generated entirely by AI.

With tools like Cursor and ChatGPT, it’s easy for non-engineers to "vibe code"—prompting an AI to build a product without understanding how it works under the hood. The result often looks functional on the screen, but the backend is a house of cards.

We recently saw a project where the code worked, but the database queries were so inefficient that 100 concurrent users would have crashed the server.

If we had just said "yes" to the quick fix, that crash would have been on us.

Why We Start with a Technical Audit

We refuse to quote a project we haven't vetted. That is gambling, not engineering.

Instead, we start with a Paid Technical Audit. This isn't just a sales call; it's a forensic analysis of your asset where we evaluate:

• Security: Secrets management, auth flows, exposed routes, and dependency vulnerabilities.

• Architecture: Data flow, database efficiency, and "spaghetti risk" (how fragile is the logic?).

• Maintainability: Documentation, test coverage, and how difficult it will be to onboard new developers in the future.

This aligns with the reality check we discuss in Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Development. The goal of an MVP is to learn fast—but you can't learn anything if your platform is too fragile to update.

What You Get (The Deliverables)

We don't just poke around and tell you "it looks bad." You walk away with a roadmap.

• A Risk Report: A clear breakdown of security holes, performance bottlenecks, and code quality issues.

• A Prioritized Fix List: We categorize issues by urgency (Critical vs. Nice-to-Have).

• The Verdict: A professional recommendation on the path forward—Stabilize, Refactor, or Rebuild.

• Stabilization Scope: A fixed quote for the "Stabilization Sprint" needed to get your app healthy enough for new features.

The Stabilization Sprint

Once the audit is complete, we move into the Stabilization Sprint.

Before we build that new feature you want, we have to stabilize the foundation. This phase is effectively paying down the technical debt that the previous developer left behind.

If the previous developer took shortcuts to get "speed to market," or if they relied on AI to generate code they didn't understand, they took out a high-interest loan on your codebase.

We have to pay that loan back—by updating libraries, securing the database, and refactoring fragile logic—before we can safely build anything new.

Engineering vs. Guessing

At Excalibur, we use AI to automate workflows, but we never let it architect your business logic.

We’ve written extensively about why AI Can Write Code But Can't Build Your Business. Code is just syntax; engineering is strategy. If your previous developer relied on AI to make architectural decisions, they likely built a system that solves today's problem but breaks under tomorrow's scale.

We build custom software because we value ownership and control. When you hire us to take over a project, our goal is to turn that terrifying "Black Box" into a transparent, documented, and stable asset that you actually own.

The Bottom Line

If you have a custom application that feels fragile—or if your previous developer relied a little too heavily on "generating" rather than "engineering"—don't let a new team just start hacking away at it.

Stop guessing.

Book a Technical Audit with us. We’ll review your codebase, infrastructure, and database, and deliver a prioritized plan to get your business back on solid ground.