Why should I be one of the first?

You get grandfathered pricing, direct access to the klair team, and influence over the roadmap before it hardens. You also get the same delivery discipline we expect to run at scale. The lifecycle doesn't change because you're early.

What if you fail, or pivot, or don't make GA?

We commit to delivering the engagement you signed, regardless. Code is delivered into your repo under your ownership from day one. If we stop running the hosted side, you keep the code and the runbook; nothing is locked behind our platform.

How much do I need to know before I can get a plan?

One paragraph. The intake drafter asks a few clarifying questions, then returns a structured proposal with scope, milestones, and a number. No deck, no discovery week.

Who actually writes the code?

klair's internal engineering team. We deliver end-to-end, with Apollo as our accelerator. Nothing is subcontracted.

How do payments work?

Work runs on bounded milestones. Each one has a deliverable and a sign-off. You pay per signed milestone, not per hour. No surprise invoices.

What happens when scope changes mid-build?

Change-orders are first-class. Each one has its own price and duration delta, approved explicitly. No silent expansion.

Who owns the code and the IP?

You do. Handover includes repos, credentials, and a runbook. No vendor lock-in.

ISSUE №18 · PARISVOL. I · 2026-04-29

Private alpha · 10 design-partner slots · 0/10 filled · GA 1 Sept 2026

Custom software, off the shelf.

Custom software. Industrialised.

Boring rails, bespoke work. We scope the brief, sign a milestone plan, and ship working software every Friday in your repo. You pay per signed milestone. Or run our build platform on your own backlog.

// SERVICES

Hire the workshop.

We scope, sign a milestone plan, ship Friday demos.

/services

// PRODUCTS

Run the workshop yourself.

Hermes scopes · Apollo builds · Moon hosts.

three products

// EDITORIAL

Why we built this.

The case for industrialised custom software.

/blog

by the klair editorial teamOPEN· 2026-04-29 · paris

02Two doors · one workshop

Two doors. One workshop.

Two distinct products. Same workshop underneath. Pick the one that matches what you actually need today.

DOOR 1 · SERVICES

We build software for you.

Milestone-billed engagement. In your repo. Demo every Friday. We scope the brief with you, sign a milestone plan, then ship. No quarterly pre-pay. No retainer drift.

forfounders & eng leads, 20–200 person teams
cadenceweekly demo · two-week milestones
at handovertake the runbook, or keep Apollo on call (Moon)
status10 design-partner slots · 3 taken · open through GA

Built on our internal workshop. Same engine we sell as Apollo.

DOOR 2 · PRODUCTS

Three products. Run them yourself.

Hermes drafts the brief. Apollo builds. Moon hosts. Each one runs as a standalone product for teams that want one piece without the engagement around it.

See the three products

→ /pricing for the full breakdown

last updated · 2026-04-22 · editorialklair.dev · pre-launch · GA 1 Sept 2026

03What makes us different · in three lines

Boring rails. Bespoke work.

We borrowed nothing from the agency playbook except invoicing — and we rewrote that too. Three plain swaps: how the work is scoped, how it's billed, how you watch it land.

01the old line02the klair line

on scope
the old line
Discovery phase. SOW signed. Team off the call.
the klair line
Brief drafted with you, milestones priced before you pay.
on billing
the old line
Quarterly retainer. Hourly rate creep. Surprise invoice.
the klair line
Pay per signed milestone. Stop anytime, mid-project.
on visibility
the old line
Status decks every Friday. The work hidden behind the deck.
the klair line
Activity feed in your tool. Demos on a real preview link.

READ THE ESSAY“Custom software should be a thing you buy.”WHY WE BUILT THISthe workshop, the team, the wager.

04The workshop · unbundled

Three products. One workshop.

Everything above is the integrated klair.dev line: we run all three on your project. Each one also runs as a standalone product for teams that want one piece without the others.

//PRODUCT SET · klair · 2026

klair·set

SCOPE THE BRIEFBUILD THE THINGHOST IT, AFTER

ENTRY FUNNEL

klair·hermes

Hermes

intake

Brief in, structured proposal out — for any team that runs on proposals.

Free at point of use, unlimited
Pro: send under your brand, your templates
Universal mechanic — software, legal, design, marketing

OPEN THE HERMES PAGE

BUILD ENGINE

klair·apollo

Apollo

the workshop

The build platform that ships every milestone in this page. 24/7. Tested before it's proposed.

Plan · build · test · open the change for review
Lab branches, never your production data
Standalone for engineering teams that own a backlog

OPEN THE APOLLO PAGE

POST-LAUNCH

klair·moon

Moon

hosting

Where Apollo keeps running after handover. The engineer who built it stays on call.

Shared, dedicated, or cluster isolation
Cancellable any month · code stays in your repo
Eligible today on services projects

OPEN THE MOON PAGE

Looking for the products themselves? They open in September · request access →

Sold separately, run as a set.

05Questions · frequently asked

Answers, before you ask.

The ones that come up on every first call.

You sign a scoped engagement at indicative pricing before GA on 1 September 2026. You get the engagement, the delivered code, and grandfathered pricing into the fairest GA tier. In exchange, you accept that you're one of the first ten. We'll learn on your project, and we commit to it in writing.

drafting desk · open now

Brief your project. Ship in milestones.

Structured proposal in minutes. A plan back, not a deck. Our engineering team builds with Apollo as the accelerator. Humans review every merge. You pay per signed milestone.

klair · workshop · open