KeelenUse case — Startups
Your roadmap is 10× your headcount. Run the long tail.
If you're a founder or an early engineering team, the backlog grows faster than you can hire. Keelen runs the long tail — the refactors, the test debt, the papercuts, the dependency bumps — so your engineers stay on the problems only they can solve. It holds the roadmap, breaks items into dev-ready tasks with acceptance criteria, and ships pull requests through the gates you choose, on your own AI credentials.
The Operator plan is $79/month: 1,000 iterations, 10 projects, 5 concurrent runs, and 5 scheduled projects on the 24/7 loop. Set plan-review sign-off where you want a human deciding scope, manual merge where you want eyes on the diff, and gated auto-merge for the routine tail.
- Use the available concurrent capacity for bounded, reviewable work; capacity alone does not clear a backlog.
- Per-project autonomy: plan-review on core repos, gated auto-merge on the tail.
- Steering rules and lessons persist across runs — course corrections stick.
- Loop metrics: cycle time per task, verification pass rate, failure mix.
Leverage where headcount is scarce
A small team's real constraint is attention, not ideas. The roadmap fills up with work that matters but never outranks the current fire. Keelen can prepare eligible work across configured projects and return pull requests or decisions for review, so teams can decide where its capacity is useful alongside architecture and customer work.
Human gates where the stakes are high
Autonomy is a dial, not a switch, and it's set per project. Put plan review on the repo that touches billing — a product and/or developer sign-off before any code is written. Leave gated auto-merge on the internal tools repo. The loop is forbidden from weakening your checks to get to green: it may not skip a failing test or mark a required check non-required.
Metrics a founder can actually read
You get the numbers that tell you whether the loop is healthy: cycle time per task, verification pass rate, answer latency on the questions it asks you, and token burn per week. When a run hits a real dead end, it becomes one plain-English card in your Needs-you queue with a recommended action — not a silent stall.
Work can continue after the team signs off
Queue defined fixes, tests and small features for evenings, weekends or holidays, then review results when the team returns. Internal tools can use the same workflow alongside product development. Repeat Security, Legal and Controls reviews through dashboard runs or an external scheduler using MCP, and select code remediation for the backlog. Availability, limits and decisions can interrupt progress.
Recommended plan
Operator — $79 / month
FAQ
How does Keelen fit a startup engineering team?
It runs the long tail of the roadmap — refactors, test debt, papercuts, dependency bumps — as reviewed pull requests, so your engineers stay on the core product. Set human gates per project: plan review and manual merge where stakes are high, gated auto-merge for routine work.
What does the Operator plan include?
$79/month: 1,000 iterations, 10 projects, 5 concurrent runs, 5 scheduled projects on the 24/7 loop, and 90-day log retention. Bring your own AI subscription or API key for Claude Code, Codex, GLM, Kimi, or Grok; token usage bills to your provider at cost.
Can we keep a human deciding scope on sensitive repos?
Yes, per project. Require plan review and Keelen won't write code until a product and/or developer owner signs off on the plan. Set merge to manual and it opens the PR but leaves the merge to you. Both can coexist with fully autonomous projects in the same account.