---
id: TREV-WP-0010
type: workplan
title: "Development Effort Calculator"
domain: infotech
repo: target-revenue
status: finished
owner: claude
topic_slug: infotech
created: "2026-07-30"
updated: "2026-07-30"
state_hub_workstream_id: "2cabf156-dbdf-4e46-a213-fb76800702df"
---

# Development Effort Calculator

Turns measurable repo activity (human interaction time, workplan/task
volume, file/line complexity, AI token cost) into `target_basis` values
(`specs/PhaseManifestSpecification.md`), which combined with a human
Target Multiple classification (10x/100x/1000x) produces a proposed
Initial Target via the framework's own existing formula
(`specs/TargetRevenueFrameworkCore.md` §1.4) — **not a new formula**. This
calculator is a value-input tool feeding that existing formula, not a
competing valuation methodology.

**Split from the former combined `TREV-WP-0009-control-plane-and-effort-calculator.md`
(2026-07-30)** — this deliverable has its own formula decision and
implementation arc, independent of the Target Revenue Control Plane
(`workplans/TREV-WP-0009-target-revenue-control-plane.md`), even though
the Control Plane's Phase-registration flow is expected to consume this
calculator's output once both exist.

**Does not include:** declaring any real Phase for any repo, or choosing
a repo's Target Multiple classification unilaterally — per
`specs/DevelopmentEffortCalculatorConcept.md` §4, that classification
remains a human judgment call the calculator can inform but not make.

Concept: `specs/DevelopmentEffortCalculatorConcept.md`.

## Formula decision (human gate)

```task
id: TREV-WP-0010-T01
status: done
priority: high
human_accept_required: true
human_accepted_by: Bernd
human_accepted_at: "2026-07-30"
state_hub_task_id: "a3e1acbf-8659-4745-b595-ba8c2728f3b5"
```

`specs/DevelopmentEffortCalculatorConcept.md` §3 presents two combination
strategies without choosing between them:

- **Candidate A (labor-cost-anchored, recommended v0 default)** — human
  time drives `estimated_effort_days`/`daily_rate` directly; AI token
  cost becomes `approved_direct_costs` (a real, metered direct cost);
  workplan/task-volume and repo-size metrics are a sanity check/adjustment
  on the human-time estimate, not a separate dollar figure.
- **Candidate B (composite-index-anchored)** — all four metric families
  scored into one weighted complexity index, converted to dollars via a
  declared $-per-unit rate.

Confirm one as the adopted v0 approach (or propose a refinement), per the
same human-gate pattern already used for the degeneration policy formula
(`workplans/TREV-WP-0007-degeneration-policy-and-canonical-profiles.md` T02).
Agents may prepare a recommendation and leave this `todo`.

**Accepted 2026-07-30 by the maintainer (Bernd): Candidate A
(labor-cost-anchored) confirmed as the adopted v0 formula.**
`estimated_effort_days` and `daily_rate` are driven directly by
commit-clustered human interaction time; AI token cost
(`get_token_summary`) becomes `approved_direct_costs`; workplan/task-
volume and file/line-size metrics serve only as a sanity check/adjustment
on the human-time estimate, never their own dollar figure; the Target
Multiple remains a human classification, not computed. T02 implements
this formula, not Candidate B or a hybrid.

## Implement the calculator

```task
id: TREV-WP-0010-T02
status: done
priority: high
state_hub_task_id: "b5fb46ea-b737-495f-82b8-5e10f0032cb5"
```

Using T01's confirmed formula, implement data collection for each metric
family and the combination formula itself, producing `target_basis`
field values ready to drop into a Phase Manifest:

- **Human interaction time** — v0 default: commit-timestamp clustering
  (session-gap grouping over git history), explicitly a floor estimate,
  not a true count (concept §2a).
- **Workplan/task volume** — counts via state hub `list_tasks`/
  `list_workplans` scoped to the repo, or direct `workplans/` directory
  inspection where hub coverage is thin (concept §2b).
- **File/line complexity** — raw counts with generated/vendored-path
  exclusion (concept §2c's flagged distortion: dependency trees,
  lockfiles, and generated files must not inflate this signal).
- **AI token cost** — `get_token_summary(scope="repo", id=...)`, the
  strongest, least speculative input since it is a real metered cost, not
  a proxy (concept §2d).

Output must show its work (which inputs produced which numbers) — a
black-box dollar figure with no visible derivation would undermine the
"transparent, non-gameable" goal (`specs/TargetRevenueLicenseConcept.md`
§4.6) this whole framework is built around.

**Result:** `src/target_revenue/effort_calculator.py` implemented, pure/
offline (no network or state-hub dependency — `list_tasks`/`list_workplans`
was superseded by direct `workplans/` directory parsing so the module
works uniformly on any repo using this repo's own workplan convention,
without requiring hub connectivity). `cluster_commit_hours()` does
session-gap clustering over `git log --all --format=%at`, with a 15-minute
floor for single-commit sessions. `workplan_task_counts()` parses
frontmatter `status:` fields and this repo's triple-backtick task-block
convention. `repo_size_metrics()`
excludes generated/vendored path components
(`node_modules`, `.venv`, `__pycache__`, etc.). `token_cost_usd()` takes
caller-supplied token counts (e.g. from `get_token_summary`) rather than
fetching them itself. `estimate_target_basis()` combines these per
Candidate A and returns a `TargetBasisEstimate` with a `derivation` dict
(showing every input value) and a `warnings` list.

**1-day manual-work floor, as requested:** any raw commit-clustered
estimate below `MANUAL_EFFORT_FLOOR_DAYS = 1.0` is floored to 1.0 day
(never reported smaller) and flagged with an explicit warning explaining
this is very likely a measurement gap — commit-clustering is a floor
estimate by design — and should usually be compensated for by a manual
override rather than trusted at face value. A second, independent
sanity-check warning fires when a repo's finished-workplan/task volume is
substantial but the raw time estimate is still low, catching the case
where the floor itself wasn't triggered but the estimate still looks
implausible (demonstrated live: running the calculator against
`target-revenue`'s own history — 7 finished workplans, 57 finished
tasks — correctly flagged its 2.38-day raw estimate as under-counted,
above the 1-day floor but still clearly too low for that much finished
work).

`scripts/effort_calculator_cli.py` — a CLI wrapper printing the estimate
as JSON, following the same offline-first, no-Phase-declaration pattern
as `scripts/trf_onboard.py`. `tests/test_effort_calculator.py` (15 tests,
deterministic — builds throwaway git repos and directory fixtures under
`tmp_path` rather than depending on any real repo's changing state)
covers commit clustering (empty/single-commit/multi-session), workplan/
task parsing, size-metric exclusion, token-cost pricing, the floor-and-
warning behavior, the independent sanity-check warning, and an
end-to-end smoke test. Full suite: 79 passing offline (64 + 15 new), no
new hard dependency (stdlib + existing `pathlib`/`subprocess`/`re` only).

## Apply calculator to real candidate repos

```task
id: TREV-WP-0010-T03
status: done
priority: medium
state_hub_task_id: "74a3db97-1b66-4514-895a-bb9c385008aa"
```

Once T02 is implemented, run it against the real candidates already
identified (`specs/PilotPhaseCandidateSurvey.md`: `net-kingdom`'s
`NK-WP-0002`, `railiance-apps`'s `vergabe-teilnahme`, and
`info-tech-canon`'s service surface) to produce **proposed**,
calculator-derived `target_basis` values, replacing the hand-picked
illustrative figures currently in `examples/pilot-candidates/*/manifest.json`.
This remains draft/non-binding — updating a draft manifest's numbers is
not a Phase declaration, and does not touch
`workplans/TREV-WP-0008-governance-and-pilot-rollout.md` T05's own gate.

**Result:** All three draft manifests updated with calculator-derived
`target_basis`/`initial_target` values; full derivation and warnings in
`history/260730-EffortCalculator-CandidateApplication.md`.
`net-kingdom-local-identity`: date-scoped to `NK-WP-0002`'s own window
(`net-kingdom` has since grown far beyond that one workplan) — hit the
1-day floor *and* the sanity-check warning; Initial Target 200,000 → 10,000
EUR. `railiance-vergabe-teilnahme`: measured against the `vergabe-teilnahme`
application repo itself (not `railiance-apps`, which only holds
deployment wiring — a judgment call recorded explicitly, with the
alternative repo's figure shown too) — no warnings; Initial Target
3,500,000 → 648,800 EUR. `info-tech-canon-service-surface`: whole-repo
history — sanity-check warning fired (12 finished workplans/51 tasks
against 1.42 raw days) even though above the 1-day floor; Initial Target
2,500,000 → 141,800 EUR. Every calculator-derived figure came out
materially lower than the earlier hand-picked placeholders, as expected
since those were never reasoned from a real measurement.

**Bug found and fixed along the way:** `workplan_task_counts()` only
scanned the top level of `workplans/`, missing `net-kingdom`'s
`workplans/archived/` convention entirely (silently reporting zero
finished workplans for `NK-WP-0002`, which lives there). Fixed to scan
recursively; added a regression test
(`test_workplan_task_counts_scans_archived_subdirectory`). Also added
`since`/`until` date-range scoping to both `cluster_commit_hours()` and
`workplan_task_counts()` (threaded through `calculate_target_basis()`),
needed for this task and reusable for any future candidate that's one
workplan within a larger repo.