# Phelps Research and Operations > Walnut Creek, CA technical consultancy: managed AI agents, custom MCP servers, native mobile apps, SEO and AEO, content and launches. Flat rates available. Phelps Research and Operations LLC is run by Gary Phelps, Managing Member, in Walnut Creek, California. Clients deal with him directly from the first call to the handover. ## Services - Managed AI agents: AI agents with a clear job, the tools they need and firm limits, for customer questions, documents, finance and operations, hosted in the client's own accounts and tuned over time. - Custom MCP servers: Model Context Protocol servers that connect Claude and other AI assistants to a business's own payroll, HR, accounting, document and database systems, with scoped, secure access. - Custom mobile apps: Native iPhone apps in SwiftUI, App Store listing and submission, and the web apps and back ends behind them on Vercel, Supabase or Laravel. - SEO and AEO: Technical SEO, structured data, sitemaps, llms.txt and IndexNow, local search, and reports on rankings and on what AI assistants say about a business. - Content and social: Short vertical video, captions and posts produced with AI tools and checked by a person, with accounts run through partner access. - Launches: Hour-by-hour launch runbooks, search engines told the moment a site opens, press follow-up so coverage links back, and weekly reports. ## Experience (by sector; client names are private) - Defense and government: a registered federal contractor with a CAGE code, with U.S. Air Force experience. - Real estate development: an AI platform with custom MCP servers for payroll and documents, AI agents and a staff portal. - Real estate finance software: technical leadership for a financial modeling product used by property investors. - Restaurants and local business: local SEO and content for a barbecue business. ## How engagements work 1. A 30-minute scoping call. 2. A written scope: a flat rate for most projects, or a monthly fee for ongoing work. Ask for a quote. 3. The build, with weekly updates. 4. Handover, with everything in the client's own accounts and the docs to run it. ## AI agents on the site - Check your site: Checks a website's search and AI-search readiness and says what to fix first. - Scope a project: Turns a rough idea into a draft project scope. - Plan a launch: Builds an hour-by-hour launch runbook. ## Questions and answers ### What does Phelps Research and Operations do? Phelps Research and Operations is a technical consultancy in Walnut Creek, California. We build managed AI agents, custom MCP servers and native mobile apps, make businesses visible on Google and in AI answers, produce content, and run product launches. ### What is a custom MCP server, and why would my business need one? MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the standard way for AI assistants such as Claude to use outside systems. A custom MCP server connects them to your own payroll, accounting, documents or databases, with only the access you choose, so staff can ask questions and get work done with real company data instead of copying it into a chat. ### What do managed AI agents include? We design the agent's job and limits, connect it to the tools and data it needs, host it in your own accounts with usage limits and logs, and keep tuning it as your questions change. The three agents on this page are examples: one checks websites, one drafts project scopes and one plans launches. ### What is AEO, and how is it different from SEO? SEO (search engine optimization) gets your pages ranked in search results. AEO (answer engine optimization) gets your business described correctly, and cited, when people ask AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude or Google's AI Overviews. They overlap: both need pages that crawlers can read, clear structured data and links from other sites. AEO adds things like an llms.txt file, plain answers to the questions people actually ask, and checking what each assistant says about you. ### How do I get my business to show up in ChatGPT and Perplexity? Make sure their crawlers can read your site, publish clear pages that answer the questions your customers ask, add structured data that says who you are and what you sell, and add an llms.txt file. Then check what each assistant says about you every few weeks and fix the pages it draws on. The site checker above runs the first part of that check for free. ### Do you build custom mobile apps? Yes. We build native iPhone apps in SwiftUI to your design, prepare the App Store listing and review notes, and handle submission and resubmissions. Apple alone decides approval, so nobody can guarantee it, but most rejections come from avoidable problems we check for before submitting. ### Do you work with government and defense clients? Yes. Phelps Research and Operations is a registered federal contractor with a CAGE code, and has experience with U.S. Air Force work. ### How does pricing work? Most projects run on a flat rate agreed after a short scoping call, written into the scope before work starts. Ongoing work, such as managed agents or content, is a monthly fee for an agreed scope. Ask for a quote. ### Where is Phelps Research and Operations based? Walnut Creek, California. ## Pages - [Home](https://phelpslabs.com/): services, AI agents, an example launch runbook, how engagements work, FAQ and contact