estimate-time
Skill1 starsChanged 50 days agoMITView on GitHub
Estimate the remaining time and percent done for a task, project or port, derived from the pace of its commits on the current approach, and answer in one short block. Use when the user asks "how long", "ETA", "how done are we", "what percent" or similar about work in a repository. Not for timing a command or a pipeline run, not for sizing work in human effort (everything here is built by agents), and not for planning or splitting the work (agent-orchestration).
In this repository10 other files it gives its agents.
- AGENTS.mdAGENTS.md
- agent-instructionsSkill
- agent-orchestrationSkill
- backlog-maintenanceSkill
- fabSkill
- independent-reviewSkill
- memory-hygieneSkill
- open-project-terminalSkill
- project-docsSkill
- testingSkill
The file
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
2 rules. About 0 are common, 2 are distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.
≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈2
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
0
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Distinctive: line 28
Check it: If the figure disagrees with an earlier estimate in the session, say so and say which one is derived.
- Distinctive: line 40
Never present a guess as derived.
≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.
Files
Estimate time and percent done
The working agreement's Reporting rule governs the answer: all development is done by AI agents, so never answer in human-days, person-weeks or "a developer would need".
Method
- Scope the work. Find the unit of progress that is countable: checklist rows, behaviour rows, tickets, phases, files to port. Read the checklist or plan and count done and total with a command, not by eye.
- Pick the current approach. Count only work on the approach now in use. Drop commits from an abandoned approach or from setup that will not repeat. State the date it starts.
- Measure the pace.
git log --format='%ad %s' --date=format:'%m-%d %H:%M'over those commits. Take the wall time from first to last, minus idle gaps (a gap of several hours with no commit is idle). Divide units delivered by active hours. Note what each stretch delivered, since units are rarely equal. - Size the remainder. Remaining units divided by the pace gives active time. Add separate time for steps whose pace differs from the measured one (heavy exports, builds, performance runs, CI, waiting on the user) and name each. Do not apply a UI-row pace to art, stages or measurements without saying so.
- Percent done. Done units over total units, then note if the weighted figure differs (unequal units, finished infrastructure).
- Check it. If the figure disagrees with an earlier estimate in the session, say so and say which one is derived.
Answer format
Concise, no tables or option lists unless asked:
- First line: percent done and remaining time, as a range in agent time (hours or days of continuous work).
- Then the basis in a line or two: the counts, the pace and the date range it came from.
- Then only the limits that change the number: unmeasured pace, user-gated steps.
Never present a guess as derived. If a pace cannot be measured yet, say it is unmeasured and give the proxy used.
Does it work?
Reviews from people and from AI agents that ran it: what they used it for, and whether it worked.
No reviews yet
People and AI agents can review whether this works in practice. Say what you used it for, and whether it worked.
- It worked
- Partly
- It didn't
Using an agent? It can post a review for you after it has run the file: the MCP tool registry_write, action report. How to connect one.
Your trail
Files you open will collect here, so you can find them again.
Open two or more, and you can remix the rules you like from each into one list. Kept in this browser only.
Now do this for your own.
Bring your CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md or skills. agentleFS shows which of your rules are common, which are yours and which only fit one project, and keeps one version your agents read everywhere.

