Scope Architect — Intelligent SOW Generator

Overview

Scope Architect turns raw discovery notes into a granular, billable project scope. It’s a single-operator tool: you input what the client said, the AI structures it into a tree of work, and you calibrate, edit, and export it as a proposal.

The output exists in two parallel forms — an Internal Blueprint (every task, every assumption, every hour) and a Client Proposal (polished, outcome-focused, hides anything you flagged internal-only).

One thing to remember: every number you see — total price, module hours, per-task hours — is computed from the same underlying tree. Change a task size, the project total updates instantly.

Workflow

Anchors— pick from preset module categories (Branding, Web, SaaS, CRM, AI). These “lock” foundational tasks the AI cannot remove.
Calibration — set complexity, risk buffer, discount, and timeline pressure (crunch adds a rush premium).
Discovery — paste your call notes or bullet-point dump. Name the project. Hit generate.
Blueprint workspace — the AI streams modules in. You edit, toggle visibility, flag risks, recalibrate live.
Export — switch to Client view, hit Export Proposal, pick a theme, save as PDF.

Modules → Features → Tasks

Every project is a three-level tree. Understanding the level you’re editing matters because it changes what “granularity” means.

Module

A high-level chunk of the project. ~3–8 per project. Examples: 'Brand Identity', 'Marketing Website', 'Authentication & RBAC'.

Feature

A cohesive capability inside a module. ~2–5 per module. Examples: 'User registration flow', 'Product detail pages', 'Cart & checkout'.

Task

The atomic unit of work — independently buildable and estimable. Examples: 'Stripe Elements integration', 'Logo concepts (4 directions)'.

Pricing is summed bottom-up: tasks have hours → features have hours → modules have hours → the project total is the sum of all modules with global multipliers applied.

Effort Levels

Every task gets an effort level — a label that maps to a number of raw hours. Your hour constants live in Agency DNA — defaults shown below.

Level	Default hours	Use when…
XS	2 hrs	Trivial — config tweak, copy update, single-file change
S	4 hrs	Half-day — small component, simple integration, polish pass
M	8 hrs	One day — typical feature, standard CRUD, moderate API integration
L	16 hrs	Two days — multi-step flow, complex state, third-party deeply integrated
XL	32 hrs	A week — major subsystem, novel pattern, heavy infrastructure

You can change every constant in Agency DNA → Effort Level Constants. The whole project repricing happens instantly.

Risk Levels

Each task has a risk level. Tasks marked high risk get a flat +20% bufferapplied to their hours. Low and medium don’t add anything individually — they’re informational, used by you to decide where to add the project-wide risk buffer.

Low

Well-understood. Standard implementation. We've done this many times.

Medium

Some unknown — third-party docs, unfamiliar lib, stakeholder ambiguity. Worth flagging.

High

Novel pattern, underspecified requirement, or high-stakes integration. Adds 20% to that task's hours and shows a red badge.

The Shield icon next to each task in the blueprint toggles between medium and high — the fastest way to flag a risk during review.

Tiers — Foundation, Studio, Signature

Every task is tagged with a tierthat says “at which proposal level this task starts being included.” This drives the multi-tier proposal — three good/better/best documents from one underlying scope.

Foundation

The lean MVP baseline. Tasks tagged 'foundation' appear in ALL three tiers — they're the things without which the project doesn't function. Most tasks should be foundation.

Studio

Production polish. Tasks tagged 'studio' appear in Studio + Signature, but NOT Foundation. Things like edge-case handling, real-world robustness, performance optimization.

Signature

Premium craft. Tasks tagged 'signature' appear ONLY in Signature. Custom animations, deep personalization, A/B infrastructure, advanced analytics — work that elevates the project beyond what most clients need.

In the blueprint, every task shows a small circular tier marker (F / S / ★). The dropdown next to it lets you change the tier inline.

Preview tier

The sidebar has a 4-segment tier preview switcher (All / Foundation / Studio / Signature). When set to anything other than “All”, the blueprint dims out tasks excluded from that tier and the price/hours numbers reflect only included tasks.

In the proposal

The proposal page has two render modes:

Single — render the proposal at one tier. The toolbar tier picker lets you flip between Foundation, Studio, and Signature without leaving the page.
Compare— side-by-side cards for whichever tiers you select. A “Show” toggle in the toolbar lets you include any combination of Foundation, Studio, and Signature. Studio is highlighted as “Recommended” when shown alongside others. Clients pick the middle option ~60% of the time when offered three — the single biggest conversion lever in agency proposals.

Sales tip:Always lead with Compare mode in your first proposal review with a new client. It frames the conversation around “which tier” instead of “will they say yes.” Then send the single-tier version of whichever they pick for sign-off.

Calibration Engine

Calibration controls the four global multipliers that turn raw task hours into billable hours and price. Live in the right sidebar, expandable under “Calibration.”

Velocity

Your team's relative speed. Solo (1.4×, slowest) → Studio (0.85×, fastest). A solo dev takes 40% longer than the senior baseline; a full studio shaves 15%.

Complexity

A 1–5 scale that adds buffer for project-wide unknowns. Each step adds 12.5%, so 1.0 = no buffer, 5.0 = +50%. Pull this up when the project has lots of architecture-level decisions still in the air.

Risk Buffer

A flat percentage (0–50%) added to all hours, project-wide. Use for 'this whole engagement smells risky' situations — new client, vague spec, hard deadline. Independent of per-task high-risk flags.

Discount

A negative-only percentage (-50% → 0%) applied to the final price. For strategic deals — friend rate, anchor portfolio piece, multi-project bundle. Doesn't change hours, only what you charge.

Rate Override

Override your default hourly rate just for this project. Leave blank to use the rate from Agency DNA.

How the Math Works

The full pipeline, from a single task to the final invoice:

Step 1 — Per-task raw hoursrawHours = sizeConstant × (riskLevel === "high" ? 1.2 : 1.0)Example: a Medium task at high risk = 8 × 1.2 = 9.6 hours

Step 2 — Project raw hoursprojectRawHours = Σ taskRawHoursSum of every task's raw hours across all modules.

Step 3 — Apply global multipliersbillableHours = rawHours × complexity × (1 + riskBuffer/100) × timelinePressureThis is what shows in the “Total Effort” stat. Timeline pressure is 1.0× for relaxed/standard, 1.15× for crunch.

Step 4 — Apply rate & discounttotalPrice = billableHours × hourlyRate × (1 + discountPct/100)Discount is negative or zero, so it only ever reduces. Rate uses override if set, else Agency DNA.

Step 5 — TimelinetimelineWeeks = Math.ceil(billableHours / 40)Assumes one full-time equivalent. Adjust mentally for parallelism.

Worked example

A project with 80 raw hours, Complexity 3 (1.25×), 15% risk buffer, Standard timeline (1.0×), $150/hr, no discount:

billableHours = 80 × 1.25 × 1.15 × 1.0 = 115 hrs

totalPrice = 115 × 150 × 1.0 = $17,250

timelineWeeks = ⌈115 / 40⌉ = 3 weeks

Agency DNA

Your global defaults — applied to every project. Access from the top nav (gear icon) or the full /settings page. Changes save to Supabase so they survive across devices and deploys.

Hourly Rate

Your standard billable rate. Can be overridden per-project in the Calibration panel.

Agency Name / Signer

Appears on every proposal cover and sign-off block. The signer name and title can also be overridden per-project from the Proposal Details block in the sidebar.

Velocity Tier

Your team's relative speed. Used as a global hours multiplier — see Calibration Engine for the full breakdown.

Effort Level Constants

Raw hours per effort level. Tune to your actual delivery speed. Changing these reprices the entire project instantly.

Cover Letter Template

The default intro text used on every proposal. Supports {clientName} and {projectName} tokens which are replaced per-project. Can be customized per-project from Proposal Details.

Project Stages

The phases shown in the 'How we'll work together' section of every proposal. Can be customized per-project from Proposal Details — useful when a branding project has a different process than a SaaS build.

Default Payment Schedule

Payment milestones included in every proposal. Percentages must sum to 100. Can be overridden per-project from Proposal Details.

Tech Stack

Listed in the generation prompt so the scope generator biases toward your preferred tools and architecture patterns.

All Agency DNA fields can be overridden per-project from the Proposal Details block in the scope sidebar — signer, cover letter, phases, and payment schedule. The Agency DNA value is always the fallback when no override is set.

Anchors & Presets

Presets are pre-built “Golden Standard” module templates. When you anchor one, the AI is forbidden from removing the tasks inside — it can only expand and refine. Anchored items show a small pin icon in the blueprint.

Tiered presets

Most presets have three quality tiers — Foundation (lean MVP), Studio (production-quality, the default), Signature (premium craft). The tier you pick changes which anchor tasks get injected.

Internal vs Client View

The view toggle in the sidebar swaps the entire workspace between two perspectives:

Internal Blueprint

Every task visible. Technical descriptions. All actions enabled (edit, delete, add). Anchor pins, risk badges, hidden-task indicators all rendered. This is your working surface.

Client Proposal

Only client-facing descriptions. Tasks marked 'hidden from client' are pruned. No edit affordances. Anchor pins suppressed (clients shouldn't see 'we forced this in').

Every task has an Eye icon that toggles its visibleToClient flag. Use it for internal-only work — research spikes, refactor passes, tech debt — that you don’t want on the client’s document.

Manual Editing

Every text field in Internal view is editable. Click any title, description, or note → it becomes an input. Save with Enter (Cmd+Enter for multiline), cancel with Esc, or click away to save.

Size dropdown

Click the size chip on any task to change it. Pricing recomputes immediately.

Risk dropdown

Set low/medium/high. Only 'high' triggers the +20% individual task buffer.

Add buttons

Hover over a feature or module → '+ Add task' / '+ Add feature' rows appear at the bottom. '+ Add Module' card lives at the very bottom of the tree.

Delete

Trash icon on every task / feature / module. Tasks delete instantly. Features and modules show an inline confirm pill since they nest other content.

Export & Proposal

The Export Proposal button takes you to /scope/proposal — a dedicated client-facing document. Three themes available:

Modern

Cream paper, accent orange, dashed cover frame. The default. Best for digital sharing.

Warm cream + black. Classic SOW look. Best for actual printing.

Blueprint

Dark, high-contrast, orange accent. For agencies that lean technical/architectural.

The Print / Save PDF button uses your browser’s native print dialog. The page is configured for US Letter with smart break rules:

Cover page is always full-page
Modules flow naturally across pages
Assumptions + Exclusions stay paired
Investment Summary + Sign-off forced to its own final page
Headings never get orphaned at the bottom of a page

When saving as PDF in Chrome, make sure “Background graphics” is checked under “More settings” — otherwise the theme colors and dashed frames don’t render. Safari calls this “Print backgrounds.”

Saving & Projects

Scopes are saved to Supabase — not just your browser. This means they survive device switches, deploys, and cleared caches.

First save

Hit 'Save Project' in the top nav whenever you have a scope loaded. This creates a record in the database and links it to your current session.

Auto-save

Once a project has been saved once, any change to the scope, calibration, or proposal details triggers an automatic save 2 seconds after you stop editing. The top nav shows 'Saving…' and 'Saved 2:34 PM' status.

Project switcher

'All Projects' in the top nav takes you to /projects — a list of every saved scope. Click Open to load it back into the workspace, including all overrides and calibration.

Regenerating

Hitting '← Regenerate' takes you back to discovery. The AI will generate a fresh scope — your per-project overrides (client name, cover letter, phases, payment schedule) are preserved in the store and reapplied when you save again.

Agency DNA is saved separately at /settings. Changes there don’t auto-save — use the “Save Agency DNA” button or the Save button in the Agency DNA panel drawer.

Keyboard Shortcuts

`Enter`	Save inline edit (single-line)
`Cmd` + `Enter`	Save inline edit (multiline / textareas)
`Esc`	Cancel inline edit, restore previous value
`Tab`	Move between inputs / toggles when editing