{
  "title": "How I run AI agents like an engineering team: 31 days, by the numbers",
  "publisher": "Ethoic Inc",
  "window": {
    "start": "2026-10-03",
    "end": "2026-11-02",
    "calendar_days": 31,
    "time_zone": "America/New_York"
  },
  "measured": {
    "commits": {
      "value": 1297,
      "note": "Commits by Jake Bowser and Claude across 11 Ethoic repositories; 74 automated data commits and 5 upstream commits excluded"
    },
    "pull_requests_merged": {
      "value": 452,
      "note": "Merged on GitHub by non-bot authors, 10 repositories"
    },
    "days_with_commits": {
      "value": 29,
      "of": 31
    },
    "lines_added": {
      "value": 215918,
      "lines_removed": 50315,
      "files_changed": 1009,
      "note": "Lockfiles, JSON, SVG and binary files excluded"
    },
    "milestones": {
      "value": 36
    },
    "mac_releases_public": {
      "value": 3,
      "versions": [
        "0.1.8",
        "0.1.9",
        "0.1.10"
      ]
    },
    "iphone_builds_uploaded": {
      "value": 15,
      "note": "Version 1.0 submitted to App Review on 2026-10-25"
    },
    "open_source_releases": {
      "value": 5,
      "project": "php-vuln-check",
      "versions": [
        "v0.1.0",
        "v0.1.1",
        "v0.1.2",
        "v0.1.3",
        "v0.1.4"
      ]
    },
    "new_sites_live": {
      "value": 4
    },
    "ci_runs": {
      "value": 977,
      "note": "GitHub Actions workflow runs across Ethoic repositories"
    },
    "agent_hours": {
      "measured": 204.5,
      "estimated": 16.9,
      "total": 221.4,
      "method": "Time inside agent turns in Claude Code and Codex session logs on two Macs; pauses over 10 minutes dropped; copied or resumed logs counted once. 5- and 15-minute cutoffs give 190-257 hours. 25 archived Codex sessions estimated from token use at 0.0218 hours per million tokens."
    },
    "hours_with_an_agent_working": {
      "value": 131.5
    },
    "peak_agents_at_once": {
      "value": 11
    },
    "average_agents_at_once": {
      "value": 1.6
    },
    "agent_sessions": {
      "value": 539,
      "claude_code": 171,
      "claude_subagents": 264,
      "codex": 104
    },
    "founder_directing_hours": {
      "value": 154,
      "range": [
        121,
        176
      ],
      "prompts": 2438,
      "sittings": 129,
      "method": "Prompt timestamps clustered into sittings with 20- to 45-minute gaps; review and testing after the last prompt not included"
    }
  },
  "costs_usd": {
    "tools_30_days": {
      "total": 171.1,
      "items": {
        "Claude Max 5x plan, $100 + ~9.25% sales tax": 109.25,
        "ChatGPT Plus, Codex included (company card)": 21.85,
        "Anthropic API, CivicFormat runner (spend cap)": 20.0,
        "Mac mini: 36-month share of hardware + power": 20.0
      },
      "excluded": "Hosting, domains, developer program fees and advertising, which a hired team would also need"
    },
    "founder_time": {
      "hours_with_review": [
        145,
        184,
        211
      ],
      "hourly_value": [
        99,
        118,
        132
      ],
      "note": "Prompt sittings plus 20% for review and testing, valued at a loaded senior engineer's hourly cost"
    }
  },
  "estimated": {
    "human_effort_person_weeks": {
      "low": 74,
      "mid": 98,
      "high": 122,
      "by_role_low_high": {
        "Engineering": [
          49.25,
          79.25
        ],
        "Product & UI design": [
          11.5,
          18.5
        ],
        "Brand & motion design": [
          6.0,
          11.0
        ],
        "Marketing & content": [
          7.5,
          13.0
        ]
      },
      "method": "Sized feature by feature from the repositories and dated work items by an AI engineering agent that did not see the cost figures; work not yet verified discounted about 10%; rework, management, recruiting and coordination excluded"
    },
    "team_uses_ai_factor": 1.26,
    "team_cost": {
      "low": 158240,
      "mid": 304059,
      "high": 459762
    },
    "workflow_cost_fully_costed": {
      "low": 28065,
      "mid": 21921,
      "high": 14534
    },
    "ratio_team_to_workflow": {
      "low": 5.6,
      "mid": 13.9,
      "high": 31.6
    },
    "readings": {
      "published_trials": [
        1.25,
        4.0
      ],
      "metr_upper_bound_capped": [
        4.2,
        7.8
      ],
      "deliverables": [
        5.6,
        31.6
      ]
    },
    "hiring_path_months": [
      4.3,
      5.5
    ],
    "labels": {
      "low": "cautious",
      "mid": "middle",
      "high": "generous"
    }
  },
  "rates": {
    "base_pay": {
      "Engineering": [
        121750,
        147783,
        179000
      ],
      "Product & UI design": [
        121000,
        131000,
        161500
      ],
      "Brand & motion design": [
        72250,
        81830,
        103000
      ],
      "Marketing & content": [
        63080,
        80750,
        101950
      ]
    },
    "loaded_multiplier": [
      1.25,
      1.35,
      1.35
    ],
    "hours_worked_per_year": [
      2080,
      1830,
      1830
    ],
    "sources": [
      "BLS OEWS May 2025",
      "BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026",
      "Robert Half 2027 Salary Guide",
      "Indeed salary data, Oct 2026",
      "Clutch agency pricing",
      "Arc.dev freelance rates",
      "SHRM 2025 benchmarking",
      "Gem 2026 recruiting benchmarks",
      "METR (2025-2026)",
      "Cui, Demirer et al. (2025)",
      "Microsoft Claude Code rollout study (2026)"
    ]
  },
  "hourly": {
    "file": "hourly.csv",
    "hours": 744,
    "hours_with_agents_working": 281,
    "of_which_no_prompt_from_founder": 48,
    "agent_hours_in_those": 24.1,
    "busiest_hour": {
      "start": "2026-10-20T19:00-04:00",
      "average_agents": 4.3,
      "commits": 7,
      "prompts": 3
    },
    "note": "Agent-minutes are measured time only (the estimated archived Codex hours are not in the hourly file). Eastern time."
  }
}