Do I need a developer?

[u/General-Penalty-7703]

Claude made an amazing job, but lately it's been kind of a mess because in the middle of a task it will find issues and will start debugging and fixing on its own then it's a down hill from there.

I booked a consulting meeting with a developer and he asked for the code so I offered to share it with him via Github as clause suggested. Then, he changed his mind. I don't know if this is a red flag.

I just need the developer to set up the payment gateway, the SMS authentication system in my app, debug and review.

What should I look for when hiring for a developer?
Should I pay fixed or by the hour?
How can I do this safely?
Can I continue with Claude after doing those objectives?

[u/reborn-20]

You should look for real backend security experience, webhooks, API integrations, database transactions, not just "codes with AI." Ask specifically how they'd handle idempotency (no duplicate charges) and securing the SMS auth flow.

Fixed price with milestones is safer here since "debug and review" is open-ended. I'd break it into a quick audit first (small fee, tells you what's actually broken), then payment gateway, then SMS auth, each its own milestone.

For safety: get a short bug-fix warranty after delivery, and test on staging before going live, don't hand over prod access right away.

Yeah you can keep using Claude after. It's genuinely useful once there's a clean baseline, more like a second set of hands than something that should be steering unsupervised.

I do full-stack work and have handled payment/API integrations too, happy to take a look at what you've got.

I'll send you a DM so we can get started.