EngineeringJuly 3, 2026· 4 min read
What “you own the code” should actually mean
Ownership is more than a clause in a contract. A practical checklist of what should be in your hands when a project is handed over.
By the Anirmo engineering team
Almost every agency promises that you will own the code. In practice, some clients discover at handover that the repository, the cloud account and the app store listing are all in someone else's name.
The ownership checklist
At the end of a project, you should control all of the following without asking anyone for access:
- 01The source code repositories, under your organisation
- 02Cloud, hosting and database accounts, billed to you
- 03Domains, DNS and email sending services
- 04App Store and Google Play developer accounts
- 05Design files and the design system
- 06Documentation: setup, architecture, deployments and runbooks
Set it up that way from day one
The easiest handover is the one that never needs to happen. We create accounts in your name at the start and work inside them, so ownership is never in question and switching teams later is a decision, not a crisis.