KeelenUse case · Startups
Your roadmap is 10× your headcount. Run the long tail.
If you are a founder or an early team, the backlog grows faster than you can hire. Keelen runs the long tail: refactors, test debt, papercuts, dependency bumps. Your engineers stay on the problems only they can solve. Keelen holds the roadmap. It breaks items into tasks ready to build with acceptance criteria, then ships pull requests through the gates you choose. It runs on your own AI credentials.
The Operator plan costs $79 a month. You get 1,000 iterations, 10 projects, 5 concurrent runs, and 5 scheduled projects on the 24/7 loop. Turn on plan review where you want a person to set scope. Pick manual merge when you want eyes on the diff. Use gated auto-merge for the routine tail.
- Use your concurrent runs for small jobs you can review. Extra capacity alone does not clear a backlog.
- Autonomy is set per project. Core repos get plan review, and the tail gets gated auto-merge.
- Steering rules and lessons carry across runs. Course corrections stick.
- Loop metrics: cycle time per task, verification pass rate, failure mix.
Extra capacity where headcount is scarce
A small team runs short on attention long before it runs short on ideas. The roadmap fills up with work that matters. That work never outranks the current fire. Keelen can prepare eligible work across your projects. It returns pull requests or decisions for review. Then the team can point its spare capacity where it helps most. That includes architecture and customer work.
Human gates where the stakes are high
You choose the merge policy per project. Manual merge means Keelen opens the PR and you click merge. Gated auto-merge has a review window. Plan review is a separate opt in. When it is on, a human approves the plan before any code is written. When the guards are on and can check the change, they block detected assertion removal or weakening within their supported scope. Supported exceptions can let those changes through. A declared exception does not prove a human approved it. The guards can be turned off. Missing inputs can make them skip the check. They do not catch every way a test can lose meaning. The tests and code still need human review.
Metrics a founder can actually read
You get the numbers that tell you whether the loop is healthy. You see 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. The card carries a recommended action. It does not stall in silence.
Work can continue after the team signs off
Queue defined fixes and small features for evenings, weekends, or holidays. Then review the results when the team comes back. Internal tools can use the same flow, and you can repeat Security, Legal, and Controls reviews on a schedule. Use dashboard runs, or an outside tool through MCP. Pick the code fix you want. Capacity, limits, and decisions can slow work down.
Recommended plan
Operator: $79 / month
FAQ
How does Keelen fit a startup engineering team?
It runs the long tail of the roadmap as reviewed pull requests: refactors, test debt, papercuts, dependency bumps. Your engineers stay on the core product. Set human gates per project. Use plan review and manual merge where stakes are high, and gated auto-merge for routine work.
What does the Operator plan include?
$79 a month. You get 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.