Audits a project to estimate the agency cost, team size, timeline, and cost of labor required to build it from scratch. Use when the user asks how much something would cost at an agency, what their project is worth, or wants to compare vibe-coding effort against traditional development.
Analyze a codebase to estimate how much it would cost and how long it would take a traditional software development agency to build it from scratch in 2025/2026.
Gather hard numbers about the project. Do not guess — measure.
find . -name "*.swift" | xargs wc -l (or equivalent for the project's language). Exclude vendored dependencies, generated code, and test files from the primary count (but note them separately).Package.swift, Podfile, package.json, Gemfile, or equivalent. Note which are heavy integrations (payment SDKs, auth providers, cloud sync) vs. lightweight utilities.Create a table of every major feature with an effort estimate:
| Feature | Complexity | Est. Hours (Mid-Market) |
|---|---|---|
| [Feature name] | Low/Med/High | X hrs |
Complexity guide:
Based on the audit, recommend a team:
| Role | Count | Justification |
|---|---|---|
| Senior iOS Developer | X | [why] |
| Junior Developer | X | [why] |
| UI/UX Designer | X | [why] |
| QA Engineer | X | [why] |
| Project Manager | X | [why] |
Read the rate card at references/rates_2025.md for current agency rates.
Calculate three tiers:
Formula per role: hours x hourly_rate = cost
Add 15-20% PM overhead on top of total dev/design hours.
Add 10% contingency buffer for scope creep.
Structure the output as:
# Agency Cost Estimate: [Project Name]
Generated: [date]
## Project Summary
- Language/Platform: [e.g., Swift/iOS + watchOS]
- Lines of code: [X] (excluding tests/generated)
- Source files: [X]
- Major features: [X]
- Third-party dependencies: [X]
- Complexity: [Low / Medium / High / Very High]
## Feature Breakdown
[table from step 2]
## Recommended Team
[table from step 3]
## Timeline
- Estimated total effort: [X] person-hours
- With team of [X]: [Y] months elapsed
- Includes: design, development, QA, project management
- Does NOT include: App Store review, marketing, ongoing maintenance
## Cost of Labor (COL)
| Tier | Total Cost | Monthly Burn |
|------|-----------|-------------|
| North America (Premium) | $XXX,XXX | $XX,XXX/mo |
| Mid-Market / Nearshore | $XXX,XXX | $XX,XXX/mo |
| Offshore | $XX,XXX | $X,XXX/mo |
### Detailed Breakdown (Mid-Market)
| Role | Hours | Rate | Cost |
|------|-------|------|------|
| [role] | [hrs] | $[rate]/hr | $[total] |
| PM overhead (18%) | [hrs] | $[rate]/hr | $[total] |
| Contingency (10%) | — | — | $[total] |
| **TOTAL** | **[hrs]** | — | **$[total]** |
## What You Built for Free
- Actual cost to you: $[actual — typically $0 + subscription costs]
- Agency equivalent (mid-market): $[mid-market total]
- You saved: $[difference] ([X]% savings)
- Time invested: [estimate if known, otherwise "ask the user"]
## Confidence Level
[Note any assumptions, unknowns, or things that could swing the estimate]
If you have access to the project's changelog, git history, or session logs:
If the project directory is provided as an argument ($ARGUMENTS), cd into it first. If no argument is given, use the current working directory.