Issue tracking
Write AI cost onto the linked Azure Boards work item.
Lineman totals the AI spend from your coding sessions, attributes it using the AB# reference in the branch name or commit message, and writes the running total to a custom field on the linked Azure Boards work item. You add that field first: a Decimal field called Lineman AI Spend, on each work item type you track. The figure is in US dollars to two decimal places, and write-back runs on a schedule rather than the moment the work happens. Because it is a decimal field, Azure Boards queries, charts and analytics views can read cost per work item like any other field.
The total goes into a Decimal field on the work item, so Azure Boards queries, charts and analytics views can read it like any other field. You can see which user stories and bugs have cost the most without leaving Azure DevOps. The field does not have to be shown on the work item form for a query to read it.
Each referenced work item carries its own figure, so a query across a sprint totals the AI cost of the items that have one. The reporting happens in the tool that already holds the plan. A work item that has never cost anything is left empty rather than written as $0.00.
Spend is matched to a work item by AB#123 in the branch name or the commit message, which is Azure's own linking convention rather than anything Lineman invented. A team already naming branches that way has nothing to change. A bare 4211 does not match, because the AB# sigil is the convention. Spend on branches with no AB# reference still appears in Cost Explorer.
The documentation walks through connecting it, what Lineman reads and writes, and the settings worth knowing about.
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