codebase-cost-estimator

What problem does it solve?

Estimate the full cost of delivering an existing codebase by translating measured lines of code and architectural complexity into development hours and total cost, including calendar-time projections and Claude/AI ROI analysis when applicable.

Core Features & Use Cases

• Measure LOC by language and code category (production, tests, docs) to drive initial hours estimates.
• Apply overhead multipliers for architecture/design, debugging, review/refactoring, documentation, integration/testing, and learning curves to derive total engineering hours.
• Research current-year market rates for the stack to build low/median/high rate scenarios and justify recommended rates.
• Convert raw hours to calendar time using organizational overhead factors across company types (solo, startup, growth, enterprise).
• Compute full-team costs using role ratios and multipliers to produce a complete cost picture for stakeholders.
• Optionally compute Claude/AI ROI to quantify value added by AI-assisted development.
• Assemble outputs into a stakeholder-ready template for reporting and planning.

This approach emphasizes measured LOC and complexity rather than ticket volume or story points, and requires explicit assumptions and ranges.

Quick Start

Count LOC in your codebase with a tool like tokei or cloc and feed the results into Claude Code to generate the estimate.