You can build it. The Developer Launch Kit gets developers to actually adopt it: positioning, messaging, docs, the launch assets and a day-by-day plan. Ninety minutes to a credible small launch, two weeks to a full one.
13-chapter playbook, 23 templates, a fully worked example and 8 agent skills for Claude Code, Codex and Cursor. All Markdown.
> run devlaunch-ttfs-audit on this repo Reading README.md, docs/quickstart.md ... Walking the quickstart as a new developer step time sign up, verify email 2:40 blocker npm install -g relaywire 1:10 EACCES create source, copy its ID 1:20 ok wait for a real provider 5:30 blocker dimension score try before signup 1/2 install 1/2 something to see 0/2 errors 1/2 time to first success 10m 40s rubric 11 / 20 Fix first: nothing to see without a provider. Add a trigger command that sends signed test events. Draft written to launch/ttfs-audit.md
You posted everywhere on the same morning and none of it stuck. No plan for what comes second, or third.
Developers bounce in seconds when they can't see what calling your API looks like.
The quickstart takes twenty minutes and the API key is three screens deep. That is your real funnel.
Security review, SLA, data handling, pricing that a finance team can predict. Nobody prepared the answers.
Interview users. Write the positioning canvas. Pick the launch tier.
Message house. Run the TTFS audit and ticket the fixes. Book a newsletter.
Ship the quickstart fixes. Draft the README, pricing page and trust FAQ.
Draft the launch post, Show HN, threads, emails and video script.
Review every asset. Cold-test the quickstart. Record the demo video.
Dry run. Emails scheduled. Status page and on-call ready.
Hour-by-hour run of show. Be in the comments all day.
Scorecard, retro, and the content engine that keeps it going.
Most chapters work like this: the default most founders write, the version developers respond to, and why.
Names no job, no alternative and no proof. Every word could describe a hundred products. No code, so a developer can't tell what using it is like.
npx relaywire listen 3000 # Forwarding https://in.relaywire.dev/src_8f2 -> localhost:3000
Names the pain, the outcome and the proof in one screen. The code sample answers "how hard is this?" before they ask.
Not your category. The script, the queue, the spreadsheet or the competitor they would use if you didn't exist.
One promise, three pillars, proof for each. Every asset after this reuses it, so your launch says one thing.
Docs and the quickstart are your real landing page. Measure it with a stopwatch and fix the slowest step.
Landing page, README, launch post, Show HN, threads, demo, emails. Agents draft, you edit.
Match the effort to the news. Six weeks for a Tier 1, a changelog post for a Tier 3.
Trust FAQ, honest compliance status, an SLA you can keep, and a one-pager your champion can forward.
A launch worked if people reached first success and came back. The scorecard and retro tell you what to repeat.
Ship to Devs is written by a developer-platform product marketer with about ten years of launching APIs, SDKs and developer platforms across fintech, crypto and cloud infrastructure, at companies from early startup to public. Everything in the kit is public, general know-how distilled into a method. No employer secrets, no recycled internal decks.
One-time payment. Instant download. 14-day refund if it isn't useful. No launch discount: the kit itself explains why discounts train people to wait. Instead, the first 100 buyers get every future edition free, including v2.
Launches get you users. Bigger companies then send a questionnaire, ask for your SOC 2 and route you through procurement. The Security Review Kit gets a small team through that honestly, before the audit is done: one trust facts sheet as the source of truth, an answer bank with a "not yet" pattern for every question, a trust page you can publish this week, and a one-pager your champion can take into the approval meeting.
Practical guidance from a product marketer who has worked alongside security, legal and compliance teams. Not legal, security or compliance advice. The kit never helps you claim a control you don't have.
Most founders copy a pricing page they admire and hope. Then the free tier quietly costs more than expected, the meter charges for work customers don't value, and the first big customer's annual deal gets improvised on a call. The API Pricing Kit gives you a method for each decision: the value metric, the cost floor, the free tier, the plans, the bill calculator, commit deals and your first price change.
Practical guidance from a developer-platform product marketer. Not legal, tax, accounting or financial advice. All Relaywire numbers are illustrative.
Plain Markdown files in folders, plus a PDF of the playbook. Drag the folder into Notion (Import, then Markdown), open it in Obsidian, or commit it to a repo next to your code.
No. The playbook, templates and prompt pack work on their own or with any chat assistant. The agent skills are a shortcut if you already use Claude Code, Codex or Cursor: they read your repo and docs and write first drafts using the kit's method.
Yes. The packaging chapter covers open source plus a hosted cloud, and the worked example is an open-source project with a paid cloud tier.
No. Launch tiers are a core idea: a full runway for the moments that deserve it, and a lighter version for features and changelog posts so a small team keeps shipping news every few weeks.
No. Every skill writes drafts for you to review. Nothing gets posted or sent without you.
If a kit isn't useful within 14 days of purchase, reply to your receipt or email hello@shiptodevs.com and you'll get a full refund. Details are on the refunds page.
Polar, our online reseller and Merchant of Record. Polar runs checkout, takes payment, handles sales tax and VAT, and sends your receipt and download links. Ship to Devs never sees your card details.
No. Every kit is a one-time payment. Nothing renews.