Onboarding Time Estimator
Estimate time to a first meaningful PR using codebase size, documentation, language mix, and directory depth.
The Onboarding Time Estimator answers one question: how long would a new developer need to understand this repository? It turns repository size, structure, and documentation coverage into a concrete estimate.
- users onboarded
- 640+
- doc modules generated
- 18k+
- files indexed
- 2.1M+
- avg to first docs
- ~2 min
What does Onboarding Time Estimator check?
- Number of source files and the depth of the directory tree
- How many modules exist and how many of them have documentation
- Entry points, configuration files, and the density of cross-module imports
- Missing docs, TODOs, and areas that require reverse-engineering
How does Onboarding Time Estimator work?
- 1.Paste a public repository URL.
- 2.ShipDocs scans the tree and scores the friction a newcomer hits.
- 3.You get an hours-to-days estimate with the factors behind it.
What do you get from Onboarding Time Estimator?
- • An onboarding estimate in hours or days
- • A ranked list of the files and directories that slow onboarding down most
- • A concrete docs plan: what to document first to cut the estimate
“I was spending 4 hours every sprint updating our internal documentation. ShipDocs indexed our monorepo in under 3 minutes, and the answers cite real files.”
Frequently asked questions
How accurate is the estimate?
- It is a structural estimate, not a stopwatch. It is most useful for comparing repositories and for tracking the effect of documentation work.
What reduces the estimate the most?
- Documented entry points, an architecture overview, and per-directory pages. Those are exactly what ShipDocs generates.
Can I run it on a private repo?
- Private repositories are supported inside the app once you connect GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket.
More free tools and examples
- Repo Wrapped — Shareable stats card for any public repo: languages, hotspots, doc coverage.
- Docs Gap Map — Which files and modules have no documentation at all.
- Dependency Time Bomb — Outdated, unmaintained and risky dependencies, ranked by upgrade pain.
- Dead Code Finder — Unused files, exports and dependencies that can safely be deleted.
- Production Readiness Audit — Tests, CI, error handling, secrets and deployment hygiene in one report.
- Architecture Diagram — A Mermaid diagram of modules and their real import relationships.
- Agent-Readiness Score — Score any docs URL 0–100 for LLM and coding-agent consumption.
- Repo Complexity Score — Cyclomatic complexity, nesting depth and the files that slow teams down.
All free developer tools · Live examples of generated documentation · How ShipDocs works
By The ShipDocs team · Reviewed