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Day, hour, or minute estimates are banned in track artifacts
From AGENTS.md "Critical Anti-Patterns":
- HARD BAN: Day estimates in track artifacts (Tier 1). Do NOT include day / hour / minute estimates in spec.md, plan.md, metadata.json, or any other track artifact. Day estimates are inaccurate noise; Tier 2 capacity is bounded by attention, not time. Measure effort by scope (N files, M sites, N tasks). The user / Tier 2 agent decides the actual pacing. See
conductor/workflow.md§"Tier 1 Track Initialization Rules" for the full rule, replacement patterns, and rationale. (Added 2026-06-16 per user feedback: "Day estimates are inaccurate. Tier-2s can only do so much in a single track and there is no way in hell its going to be 'DAYS'.")
From conductor/workflow.md §"Tier 1 Track Initialization Rules" §1:
HARD BAN. Do NOT include day, hour, or minute estimates in
spec.md, plan.md, metadata.json, or any other track artifact.
Why: day estimates are inaccurate noise. Tier 2 capacity is bounded by attention, not time. A track that "should take 2 days" can take half a day (if the user is available and the Tier 2 is focused) or 3 days (if interruptions come up, the user is unavailable for review, or the audit reveals scope growth). The Tier 1 cannot predict either scenario. Estimates also anchor the user's expectations incorrectly; "the spec said 2 days and it's been 3, what's wrong?".
What to use instead: measure effort by scope (N files, M sites, N tasks). No sizing labels (T-shirt sizes, points, day estimates) are allowed in track artifacts - they are all guesses. The user / Tier 2 agent decides the actual pacing.