Figure 1 · Project velocity

Four methodology eras,
one acceleration curve

New project initiations per week, by AI-integration regime

44× increase from pre-AI baseline to current regime

A single practitioner's project-initiation rate across four consecutive regimes of AI integration, from clipboard-mediated copy-paste with chat AI in 2023–2024, through direct repository access in early 2026, to full agentic coding with Claude Code from March 2026 onward. The acceleration is not a rate change; it is a regime change.

I

Pre-AI

2023 – dec 2024

Unaided work. Manual research, coding, drafting. No chat AI in regular workflow.

II

Copy-paste

q4 2025

Chat AI via clipboard. Hand-carried context between assistant and codebase. Bottleneck: human cycle.

III

Direct integration

jan – feb 2026

Assistant writes directly to repositories via MCP. Context persists across sessions. Clipboard removed from loop.

IV

Full agency

mar 2026 – present

Agentic coding assistant with filesystem and terminal access. Bottleneck shifts from implementation to decision.

Underlying data

Era Weeks Projects Rate (proj/wk) Cumulative
Pre-AI10460.066
Copy-paste1330.239
Direct integration840.5013
Full agency7.5202.6733

Data current as of 23 april 2026. Full-agency window covers 1 march – 23 april 2026. Project count smoothed across full window to remove catch-up registration effects.

Methodology: project-initiation events tallied from Mnemos conversational record and cross-checked against git first-commit dates across 37 active repositories.