What should I ask for at the end of a development contract?
Owner access to the repository and all infrastructure accounts, written deployment instructions someone else can follow, an architecture description, and a list of what stores personal data. Agree these at the start. They are much harder to obtain at the end.
From Staying in control of software you can't read, published 9 August 2026. That article is where the reasoning behind this answer is set out, including what it does not cover.