Not Quite My Tempo Rule: Bill It Only Where the Client Owns the Gemini Key
Should an agency resell Not Quite My Tempo as a retainer add-on, and under what billing structure does it stay profitable? Sell Not Quite My Tempo as a configured add-on to an existing development retainer, and put the Gemini key in the client's account before the first pull request is reviewed.
By InnovaAI ResearchPublished
“Should an agency resell Not Quite My Tempo as a retainer add-on, and under what billing structure does it stay profitable?”
Sell Not Quite My Tempo as a configured add-on to an existing development retainer, and put the Gemini key in the client's account before the first pull request is reviewed.
Agencies install Not Quite My Tempo on the agency's own Gemini key and workspace, then absorb per-workspace scaling and credit burn as an invisible cost inside a flat retainer, and they promise white-label output even though clients see Fletcher branding in pull request comments and the Gemini engine cannot be swapped.
The tool posts line-by-line comments within about a minute and is tuned through a .fletcher.json file covering severity threshold, intensity, tone, ignore globs, and guidelines, so the agency's billable work is configuration and handoff rather than ongoing review labor. Pricing scales per workspace and the Pro tier bundles 200 review credits a month on Fletcher's keys, while reviews run on the client's own key never use credits, which keeps usage cost off the agency's margin. The verdict is explicit that the model works best for shops already embedded in client development workflows, so the add-on framing matches how the tool actually gets consumed.
- •The client already runs pull request review inside GitHub and has an engineering team that will read line-by-line comments
- •The client can hold its own Gemini API key so reviews on that key never consume workspace credits
- •The agency is scoping a fixed-fee setup engagement in the range of the $1,800 Starter offer with roughly 16 hours of configuration
- •The client wants severity-thresholded feedback on critical problems rather than a full manual review replacement
- •The engagement is a retainer add-on to existing development work, not a standalone product the agency sells cold
More on Not Quite My Tempo
- StrategyWhy Not Quite My Tempo Is a Retainer Add-On, Not a Standalone Agency Product
- ConceptNot Quite My Tempo Retainer Fit Matrix
- Decision FrameworkNot Quite My Tempo: Buy vs Skip (Agency PR Review Add-On)
- Failure PatternThe Not Quite My Tempo Retainer Trap: Billing Clients for Reviews Nobody Reads
- Implementation BlueprintNot Quite My Tempo PR Review Retainer Setup (5-7 days)
- Operating ProcedureNot Quite My Tempo Client Repo Onboarding (.fletcher.json Setup) (Onboarding)