Estimate
Purpose
Provide a transparent range derived from scope, dependencies, uncertainty, and comparable work rather than a false-precision point value.
Workspace protocol
Read references/workspaces.md once per agent task before selecting or creating workflow artifacts; reuse it unless repository scope or task authority changes. This skill owns only the task-specific behavior below.
Inputs
- Goal, acceptance criteria, proposed plan, and definition of done
- Current architecture, team and environment constraints, dependencies, and unknowns
- Historical evidence when available
Outputs
- Optimistic, likely, and pessimistic ranges with confidence
- Work breakdown at the level needed to explain the range
- Assumptions, exclusions, critical path, risk drivers, and uncertainty-reduction actions
Rules
- Estimate the full delivery boundary requested, including verification, review, migration, rollout, and coordination when applicable.
- Keep effort and elapsed duration separate.
- Do not invent team velocity or historical baselines.
- Express unknowns as ranges or scenarios, not hidden padding.
- Re-estimate after material scope or evidence changes.
- State the unit and whether the estimate is for one person, a team, or calendar time.
Decision-log updates
Record the committed estimation basis, major assumptions, exclusions, selected scenario, and later changes that materially move the range. Do not log exploratory arithmetic.
When durable state is approved, append scope interpretations, estimation model changes, and accepted schedule tradeoffs to the selected work item's decisions.md; otherwise include them in the final response.
Escalate to the human
Escalate when scope is not bounded enough to produce a useful range, staffing or dependency ownership is unknown, a deadline requires explicit scope tradeoffs, or the estimate will be treated as a commitment despite low confidence.
1---2name: estimate3description: Use when software work needs an evidence-based range for effort, duration, sequencing, risk, staffing, or confidence before commitment.4---56# Estimate78## Purpose910Provide a transparent range derived from scope, dependencies, uncertainty, and comparable work rather than a false-precision point value.1112## Workspace protocol1314Read `references/workspaces.md` once per agent task before selecting or creating workflow artifacts; reuse it unless repository scope or task authority changes. This skill owns only the task-specific behavior below.1516## Inputs1718- Goal, acceptance criteria, proposed plan, and definition of done19- Current architecture, team and environment constraints, dependencies, and unknowns20- Historical evidence when available2122## Outputs2324- Optimistic, likely, and pessimistic ranges with confidence25- Work breakdown at the level needed to explain the range26- Assumptions, exclusions, critical path, risk drivers, and uncertainty-reduction actions2728## Rules2930- Estimate the full delivery boundary requested, including verification, review, migration, rollout, and coordination when applicable.31- Keep effort and elapsed duration separate.32- Do not invent team velocity or historical baselines.33- Express unknowns as ranges or scenarios, not hidden padding.34- Re-estimate after material scope or evidence changes.35- State the unit and whether the estimate is for one person, a team, or calendar time.3637## Decision-log updates3839Record the committed estimation basis, major assumptions, exclusions, selected scenario, and later changes that materially move the range. Do not log exploratory arithmetic.40When durable state is approved, append scope interpretations, estimation model changes, and accepted schedule tradeoffs to the selected work item's decisions.md; otherwise include them in the final response.4142## Escalate to the human4344Escalate when scope is not bounded enough to produce a useful range, staffing or dependency ownership is unknown, a deadline requires explicit scope tradeoffs, or the estimate will be treated as a commitment despite low confidence.
nono911