A credible transfer accounts for every asset needed to change and release the product, then proves the incoming owner can use that record before prior access changes.
Inventory custody, not just files
List repositories, organizations, package registries, cloud projects, databases, domains, app stores, certificates, monitoring, support systems, vendors, billing owners, and release channels. For each item, record the controlling account, current custodian, intended owner, transfer method, dependency, and evidence. Do not place passwords, private keys, recovery codes, or token values in the inventory.
GitHub explains that a repository transfer carries issues, pull requests, releases, settings, and other assets, while webhooks, services, secrets, and deploy keys remain associated. That means a moved repository is not a completed ownership transfer. The checklist must follow connected services and credentials through their own review, rotation, or reassignment paths.
Record the path to a release
Write the clean starting state, required tools, build commands, configuration names, environment promotion, approvals, deployment command, observable checks, and rollback procedure. Link every step to an owner and source. If a step exists only in the departing maintainer's memory, capture it during a recorded walkthrough and then test it without their hidden local state.
The runbook should distinguish facts from unresolved questions. A command copied from shell history is not verified until the incoming owner can execute it safely in the agreed environment. Preserve known defects, fragile dependencies, manual gates, and vendor constraints. A transfer record that omits awkward conditions leaves the new custodian with a cleaner document and the same operational uncertainty.
End with acceptance and access disposition
Name who can accept each asset, runbook, exception, and release receipt. The incoming owner should perform a production-shaped shadow release or the closest safe equivalent, show the expected system checks, and demonstrate rollback or a bounded recovery rehearsal. Failed steps remain open items with an owner rather than being converted into narrative completion.
Release Custody Record is prepared by Reality Contact, LLC. The buyer directs repository and account transfers, accepts known gaps, and orders prior access changes. The checklist is operational evidence, not legal proof of intellectual-property title, a security assessment, or a promise that the transferred system has no undiscovered defects or provider dependencies.
Where the service stops
Reality Contact, LLC documents and facilitates a software ownership transfer but does not give legal advice, determine intellectual-property title, warrant the software, certify security or compliance, hold production credentials after the engagement, perform unilateral access revocation, or guarantee a release will be incident-free. The buyer names the authorized incoming owner, secures cooperation from current custodians, approves account and repository changes, performs the shadow release, accepts or rejects exceptions, and directs the relevant providers to revoke or reassign prior access. This operational handoff service does not replace legal, intellectual-property, security, compliance, employment, finance, provider, or incident-response review. The buyer controls every repository, account, credential, release, acceptance, and access decision; private materials wait for secure intake and written deletion terms.
Sources: GitHub repository-transfer documentation; GitHub guidance for maintaining organization ownership continuity.