Software Development
Secure Software You Own
Mission impact
Software produces mission value only when it ships and only while the owning organization can sustain it. We engage with defined scope, deliver in validated increments, and transfer ownership completely — so capability enhances operational effectiveness from go-live without dependence on our continued involvement.
Software that survives the last mile
Working code is not the hard part. The hard part is getting that code into the systems your organization already trusts — legacy platforms, compliance review, production ops, and the team that inherits the result after the engagement. Wilkes & Liberty delivers software as forward-deployed engineers: discovery in the room, integration against real constraints, governed delivery from the first commit, and a deliberate handoff so the owning team can run what we ship.
We build web applications, APIs, integrations, and modernization increments with the same security bar we use for regulated and mission environments. Private clients are not on a “lite commercial” track. Sector-specific control language and acquisition artifacts live on the Federal Buyers path; the engineering standard is the product.
What we build
- Web applications — modern, decoupled front ends (for example Next.js) on structured, API-first data layers.
- APIs and integration services — REST, GraphQL, and JSON:API interfaces that connect systems securely and predictably.
- Backend and middleware services — PHP, Node.js, and Python engineered for reliability under load.
- Platform extensions and open modules — purpose-built functionality for systems of record, written to community standards and, where it makes sense, published for scrutiny.
When the work centers on structured content and editorial workflow, see Enterprise Content Management. When it centers on the environments software runs in, see Private Infrastructure. Pipeline and release control are covered under DevSecOps.
Evidence from our own estate
We do not sell a stack diagram we do not operate. Present, inspectable evidence includes open Drupal modules we maintain (schema-driven GraphQL code generation, governed agent access, controlled file delivery, field-level policy, hash-chained audit, menu reconciliation), a Drupal + Next.js delivery base, and an integrated CI and operations estate we run for our own production surface. Vendor names that appear in that estate are examples of what we integrate and operate — not a required customer architecture. You keep choice of identity, search, monitoring, and cloud or on-prem control plane.
Integration engineering
Enterprise environments accumulate decades of systems that were never designed to talk. The integration layer is where critical information either flows or stalls. We design secure integration architectures — API gateways, legacy-to-modern bridges, ETL and event-driven patterns, protocol translation — with tested failure modes and documentation the next operator can use. Existing systems connect without a forced wholesale platform replacement; where the estate needs renewal rather than connection, that is modernization.
Engagement models
Net-new applications. Requirements through delivery: architecture, full-stack development, testing, and deployment — with documentation sufficient for the team that inherits the codebase.
Modernization. Assessment-driven transformation of legacy systems in validated increments, not open-ended rewrites. We start with what is actually running, what it depends on, where risk concentrates, and which components justify replacement versus remediation versus deliberate retirement. Each increment delivers verifiable value on its own so the program stays defensible at every budget review.
Team augmentation. Engineers who operate to the same standards as your team, contribute from day one, and transfer knowledge rather than accumulate it.
Modernization that does not create the next legacy system
Legacy systems rarely fail loudly. They fail as friction — releases that take weeks, integrations no one dares touch, frameworks out of support, institutional knowledge held by two people. We deliver increments behind the existing system’s contract, verify behavior before cutover, stage rollbacks where warranted, and rehearse data migrations against production-scale copies. Where the estate carries unreviewed or AI-generated code, AI Remediation & Verification turns it into something dependable before it is carried forward. Every increment transfers ownership: architecture decisions, tests that guard the behavior that matters, and runbooks your operators can execute.
Agent-accelerated delivery, human-reviewed
Our practice uses orchestrated AI agent workflows for the repetitive, well-specified half of engineering — multi-repository refactors, dependency remediation, migration mechanics, documentation, tracker hygiene — with human engineers owning architecture, judgment, and every merge. That is force multiplication, not unsupervised generation. Organizations that want this capability inside their own teams should see Agentic AI Development and the governance plane under AI Governance & MCP Integration.
Discipline you can audit
- Version-controlled source with meaningful history and peer-reviewed changes
- Automated tests and continuous integration on runners you can own
- Dependency auditing and least-privilege design as default practice
- Documentation that outlives the engagement — decisions, runbooks, onboarding
- Supply-chain hygiene (including SBOMs as routine build artifacts where the pipeline supports them)
Secure development standards (for example NIST SSDF-aligned practices) are how we work for every client. Dense federal attestation language and acquisition mappings belong on the Federal Buyers path — commercial and regulated private buyers get the same engineering bar without the acronym soup.
Open source, first-class
We contribute and maintain open components (including Drupal.org and GitHub work) and deliver customer code to community standards. Inspectable primitives are not the whole product: the product is the integration, governance, and ops handoff that make those primitives yours. Nothing we leave behind should require a proprietary black box to understand.
Related software-factory delivery
Anvil is the related software-factory offering for programs that need source control, automated testing, artifact handling, security gates, and controlled release assembled inside their boundary. A scoped engagement confirms the required pipeline, supported components, accreditation constraints, and operating ownership.
Software you own
Every engagement produces software your organization can maintain. We do not deliver codebases that require our continued involvement to understand, and we do not make architectural choices that create the next cycle of technical debt. Unsure where to start? The AI & Sovereignty Readiness Assessment is the paid discovery path. Ready to build or modernize? Open a ticket — structured intake (problem, systems, impact, constraints, desired outcome, contact) lands in our private queue and triages into assessment, implementation, or managed ops.
When to bring in a delivery team
Product owners, program leaders, and engineering teams bring us a new application, a defensible modernization, or added capacity tied to an accountable outcome. The right trigger is concrete: a critical workflow is trapped in manual work, an inherited system cannot change safely, integrations are blocking the mission, a contractor handoff is incomplete, or internal capacity cannot meet a defined delivery window.
From workflow to operable software
Delivery begins with the user workflow and system boundary, then carries through architecture, APIs, data, application code, testing, deployment integration, and operational handoff. A short discovery frames the smallest useful increment and its acceptance evidence; engineers build alongside stakeholders, demonstrate working slices, integrate them into the real environment, and transfer code, decisions, tests, and runbooks. Managed operations is optional, not a condition of ownership.
What transfers to your organization
- Working, documented software and source repositories owned by your organization.
- Architecture decisions, automated tests, deployment integration, and acceptance evidence.
- A prioritized backlog and operator/developer handoff material.
Software Development owns application outcomes. Delivery-pipeline engineering, inherited-code verification, infrastructure control, and governance remain distinct linked capabilities so responsibility does not blur.
Key capabilities
Web application design and development
Full-stack web application development across modern frameworks — frontend, API, and backend — with architecture decisions documented, test coverage defined from the start, and delivery sequenced so working functionality reaches users incrementally rather than at the end of a long development cycle.
Mission benefit: Applications that deliver operational value early and continue to improve through the engagement rather than waiting for a big-bang delivery.API design, implementation, and integration
RESTful and GraphQL API design, implementation, and integration work — including new API surface development, legacy API modernization, and third-party integration engineering — with versioning strategy, documentation, and security controls built in.
Mission benefit: Clean API surfaces that your internal and partner consumers can depend on, rather than integration points that require tribal knowledge to use correctly.Modernization sprints against legacy codebases
Scoped, time-boxed modernization work targeting specific technical debt: framework and dependency upgrades, performance bottleneck remediation, test coverage extension, and architecture simplification — sequenced so each sprint delivers a validated improvement rather than accumulating changes that cannot be tested until the end.
Mission benefit: Legacy codebase risk is reduced incrementally and measurably, with each sprint delivering a codebase that is more maintainable than the one it replaced.Team augmentation and embedded engineering
Skilled engineers embedded in your existing development team — operating under your processes and standards, contributing to active workstreams from the first week, and applying the same documentation and knowledge-transfer discipline that makes the engagement net-positive for your internal capability rather than a temporary throughput supplement.
Mission benefit: Your team's delivery capacity increases without the ramp overhead that external contractors typically impose, and the internal team is stronger when the augmentation engagement ends.Delivery documentation and codebase handover
Technical documentation, architecture decision records, test suite documentation, and structured codebase handover — ensuring your team can maintain and extend every application we deliver without requiring our involvement to interpret what was built or why it was built that way.
Mission benefit: The software your organization owns is actually owned — understood, documented, and operable by your team independently from the day we hand it over.
Sovereignty features
Your code lives in repositories you own, builds on runners you control, and ships to registries you operate — the delivery chain answers to your authority at every stage. The toolchain is open and vendor-independent: nothing in how we build, test, or release requires a proprietary platform or a vendor cloud to function, and the entire practice transfers to environments with no external connectivity at all. Air-gapped delivery is a supported mode, not an exception. When the engagement closes, the pipeline is as much yours as the software it built.
Defense & government relevance
Sector-neutral security engineering (peer review, CI, least privilege, supply-chain hygiene) applies to commercial and regulated buyers alike. Dense federal attestation language, control mappings, and acquisition artifacts belong on the Federal Buyers path — not duplicated in every commercial body section.