Technology Stack Evaluator

March 30, 2026 · View on GitHub

Evaluate and compare technologies, frameworks, and cloud providers with data-driven analysis and actionable recommendations.

Capabilities
Quick Start
Input Formats
Analysis Types
Scripts
References

Capabilities

Capability	Description
Technology Comparison	Compare frameworks and libraries with weighted scoring
TCO Analysis	Calculate 5-year total cost including hidden costs
Ecosystem Health	Assess GitHub metrics, npm adoption, community strength
Security Assessment	Evaluate vulnerabilities and compliance readiness
Migration Analysis	Estimate effort, risks, and timeline for migrations
Cloud Comparison	Compare AWS, Azure, GCP for specific workloads

Quick Start

Compare Two Technologies

Compare React vs Vue for a SaaS dashboard.
Priorities: developer productivity (40%), ecosystem (30%), performance (30%).

Calculate TCO

Calculate 5-year TCO for Next.js on Vercel.
Team: 8 developers. Hosting: \$2500/month. Growth: 40%/year.

Assess Migration

Evaluate migrating from Angular.js to React.
Codebase: 50,000 lines, 200 components. Team: 6 developers.

Input Formats

The evaluator accepts three input formats:

Text - Natural language queries

Compare PostgreSQL vs MongoDB for our e-commerce platform.

YAML - Structured input for automation

comparison:
  technologies: ["React", "Vue"]
  use_case: "SaaS dashboard"
  weights:
    ecosystem: 30
    performance: 25
    developer_experience: 45

JSON - Programmatic integration

{
  "technologies": ["React", "Vue"],
  "use_case": "SaaS dashboard"
}

Analysis Types

Quick Comparison (200-300 tokens)

Weighted scores and recommendation
Top 3 decision factors
Confidence level

Standard Analysis (500-800 tokens)

Comparison matrix
TCO overview
Security summary

Full Report (1200-1500 tokens)

All metrics and calculations
Migration analysis
Detailed recommendations

Scripts

stack_comparator.py

Compare technologies with customizable weighted criteria.

python scripts/stack_comparator.py --help

tco_calculator.py

Calculate total cost of ownership over multi-year projections.

python scripts/tco_calculator.py --input assets/sample_input_tco.json

ecosystem_analyzer.py

Analyze ecosystem health from GitHub, npm, and community metrics.

python scripts/ecosystem_analyzer.py --technology react

security_assessor.py

Evaluate security posture and compliance readiness.

python scripts/security_assessor.py --technology express --compliance soc2,gdpr

migration_analyzer.py

Estimate migration complexity, effort, and risks.

python scripts/migration_analyzer.py --from angular-1.x --to react

References

Document	Content
`references/metrics.md`	Detailed scoring algorithms and calculation formulas
`references/examples.md`	Input/output examples for all analysis types
`references/workflows.md`	Step-by-step evaluation workflows

Confidence Levels

Level	Score	Interpretation
High	80-100%	Clear winner, strong data
Medium	50-79%	Trade-offs present, moderate uncertainty
Low	< 50%	Close call, limited data

When to Use

Comparing frontend/backend frameworks for new projects
Evaluating cloud providers for specific workloads
Planning technology migrations with risk assessment
Calculating build vs. buy decisions with TCO
Assessing open-source library viability

When NOT to Use

Trivial decisions between similar tools (use team preference)
Mandated technology choices (decision already made)
Emergency production issues (use monitoring tools)

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Solution
Weighted scores all return 50.0	Technology data dictionaries missing `score` keys under each category	Ensure each category dict contains a `score` key on a 0-100 scale (e.g., `{"performance": {"score": 85}}`)
TCO projections look unrealistically low	Default cost parameters used when `operational_costs` or `initial_costs` are empty	Populate `monthly_hosting`, `annual_licensing`, `developer_hourly_rate`, and `maintenance_hours_per_dev_monthly` with real figures
Ecosystem health score stuck at 50 for npm	`npm_data` dict is empty or not provided	Pass npm metrics (`weekly_downloads`, `version`, `dependencies_count`, `days_since_last_publish`); 50 is the neutral fallback when npm data is absent
Security compliance returns "Unknown standard"	Unsupported standard name passed to `assess_compliance()`	Use one of the supported keys: `GDPR`, `SOC2`, `HIPAA`, `PCI_DSS` (case-sensitive)
Migration complexity always shows moderate	`architecture_change_level` defaults to `moderate` when not specified	Set `architecture_change_level` explicitly to `minimal`, `moderate`, `significant`, or `complete` in `codebase_stats`
Report renders ASCII tables instead of markdown	`ReportGenerator` auto-detects CLI context when stdout is a TTY	Pass `output_context='desktop'` to force rich markdown output
Format detector misclassifies YAML as text	Fewer than 50% of lines match YAML key-value patterns	Ensure input uses standard YAML syntax with `key: value` pairs and proper indentation

Success Criteria

TCO variance under 15%: Calculated TCO deviates less than 15% from actual costs when validated against real-world spending data over the projection period.
Security score above 80/100: Technologies recommended for production use achieve a minimum overall security score of 80, corresponding to grade B or higher.
Ecosystem health score above 65/100: Recommended technologies demonstrate viable long-term ecosystem health with a risk level no worse than "Low-Medium."
Migration effort estimate within 20%: Person-hours and timeline estimates land within 20% of actual migration effort when measured post-completion.
Comparison confidence above 70%: Final technology recommendations carry a confidence score of 70% or higher, indicating a meaningful score gap between top candidates.
Compliance readiness at "Mostly Ready" or above: Technologies targeting regulated environments achieve at least 70% feature coverage against required compliance standards (GDPR, SOC2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS).
Report generation under 5 seconds: All report types (executive summary, full report) render within 5 seconds for evaluations comparing up to 5 technologies.

Scope & Limitations

Covers:

Weighted multi-criteria comparison of frameworks, libraries, and cloud providers
Multi-year TCO projections including hidden costs (technical debt, vendor lock-in, turnover)
Ecosystem viability assessment using GitHub, npm, and community metrics
Security posture scoring and compliance readiness for GDPR, SOC2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS

Does NOT cover:

Live data fetching from GitHub API, npm registry, or vulnerability databases (all data must be provided as input dictionaries)
Performance benchmarking or load testing (use engineering/senior-qa for test execution)
Licensing legal review or contract negotiation (use ra-qm-team compliance skills for regulatory guidance)
Team hiring or organizational design decisions (use hr-operations/talent-acquisition for staffing analysis)

Integration Points

Skill	Integration	Data Flow
`engineering/senior-security`	Feed security assessor output into deeper vulnerability analysis	`SecurityAssessor` results → security review input
`engineering/senior-devops`	Use TCO hosting projections to inform infrastructure planning	`TCOCalculator` hosting/scaling data → DevOps capacity models
`engineering/senior-qa`	Migration test coverage scores inform QA test planning	`MigrationAnalyzer` testing_requirements → QA test strategy
`ra-qm-team/compliance-auditor`	Compliance readiness gaps feed into formal audit preparation	`SecurityAssessor.assess_compliance()` missing features → audit checklist
`c-level-advisor/cto-advisor`	Executive summaries and TCO reports support CTO decision-making	`ReportGenerator` executive summary → strategic technology decisions
`product-team/product-manager`	Ecosystem viability and migration timelines inform product roadmaps	`EcosystemAnalyzer` + `MigrationAnalyzer` → roadmap planning

Purpose: Compare technologies with customizable weighted criteria across 8 evaluation categories: performance, scalability, developer experience, ecosystem, learning curve, documentation, community support, and enterprise readiness.

Usage:

from stack_comparator import StackComparator

comparator = StackComparator({
    "technologies": ["React", "Vue"],
    "use_case": "SaaS dashboard",
    "weights": {"developer_experience": 40, "performance": 30, "ecosystem": 30}
})

results = comparator.compare_technologies(tech_data_list)

Constructor Parameters (comparison_data dict):

Key	Type	Default	Description
`technologies`	list	`[]`	Names of technologies to compare
`use_case`	str	`"general"`	Use case context (supports `real-time`, `enterprise`, `startup` bonuses)
`priorities`	dict	`{}`	Priority overrides
`weights`	dict	`DEFAULT_WEIGHTS`	Category weights (auto-normalized to 100)

Default Weights: performance 15, scalability 15, developer_experience 20, ecosystem 15, learning_curve 10, documentation 10, community_support 10, enterprise_readiness 5.

Key Methods:

compare_technologies(tech_data_list) -- Full comparison with scores, recommendation, confidence, and decision factors
score_technology(tech_name, tech_data) -- Score a single technology across all categories
calculate_weighted_score(category_scores) -- Calculate weighted total from category scores
generate_pros_cons(tech_name, tech_scores) -- Generate pros/cons lists from scores

Example Output:

{
  "technologies": {"React": {"weighted_total": 78.5, "strengths": [...], "weaknesses": [...]}},
  "recommendation": "React",
  "confidence": 72.0,
  "decision_factors": [{"category": "developer_experience", "importance": "40.0%", "best_performer": "React"}],
  "comparison_matrix": [{"category": "performance", "weight": "15.0%", "scores": {"React": "82.0", "Vue": "79.0"}}]
}

Output Format: Python dictionary (serialize with json.dumps() for JSON output).

tco_calculator.py

Purpose: Calculate comprehensive Total Cost of Ownership over multi-year projections, including initial costs, operational costs, scaling costs, hidden costs (technical debt, vendor lock-in, security incidents, downtime, turnover), and developer productivity impact.

Usage:

from tco_calculator import TCOCalculator

calculator = TCOCalculator({
    "technology": "Next.js",
    "team_size": 8,
    "timeline_years": 5,
    "initial_costs": {"licensing": 0, "migration": 15000, "developer_hourly_rate": 100},
    "operational_costs": {"monthly_hosting": 2500, "annual_licensing": 0, "maintenance_hours_per_dev_monthly": 20},
    "scaling_params": {"annual_growth_rate": 0.40, "initial_users": 5000}
})

tco = calculator.calculate_total_tco()
summary = calculator.generate_tco_summary()

Constructor Parameters (tco_data dict):

Key	Type	Default	Description
`technology`	str	`"Unknown"`	Technology name
`team_size`	int	`5`	Number of developers
`timeline_years`	int	`5`	Projection period in years
`initial_costs`	dict	`{}`	One-time costs: `licensing`, `migration`, `setup`, `tooling`, `training_hours_per_dev`, `developer_hourly_rate`, `training_materials`
`operational_costs`	dict	`{}`	Recurring costs: `monthly_hosting`, `annual_licensing`, `annual_support`, `maintenance_hours_per_dev_monthly`
`scaling_params`	dict	`{}`	Growth params: `annual_growth_rate`, `initial_users`, `initial_servers`, `cost_per_server_monthly`
`productivity_factors`	dict	`{}`	Productivity: `productivity_multiplier`, `time_to_market_reduction_days`, `avg_feature_time_days`, `avg_feature_value`, `technical_debt_percentage`, `vendor_lock_in_risk`, `security_incidents_per_year`, `avg_security_incident_cost`, `downtime_hours_per_year`, `downtime_cost_per_hour`, `annual_turnover_rate`, `cost_per_new_hire`

Key Methods:

calculate_total_tco() -- Complete TCO with all cost components
generate_tco_summary() -- Executive summary with formatted dollar amounts
calculate_initial_costs() -- One-time cost breakdown
calculate_operational_costs() -- Year-by-year operational costs
calculate_scaling_costs() -- User projections and cost-per-user analysis
calculate_hidden_costs() -- Technical debt, vendor lock-in, security, downtime, turnover
calculate_productivity_impact() -- Productivity gains and feature velocity

Output Format: Python dictionary (all monetary values as floats; generate_tco_summary() returns pre-formatted dollar strings).

ecosystem_analyzer.py

Purpose: Analyze technology ecosystem health and long-term viability by scoring GitHub activity, npm adoption, community strength, corporate backing, and maintenance responsiveness on a 0-100 scale.

Usage:

from ecosystem_analyzer import EcosystemAnalyzer

analyzer = EcosystemAnalyzer({
    "technology": "React",
    "github": {"stars": 220000, "forks": 45000, "contributors": 1500, "commits_last_month": 120},
    "npm": {"weekly_downloads": 20000000, "version": "18.2.0", "dependencies_count": 3},
    "community": {"stackoverflow_questions": 400000, "job_postings": 15000},
    "corporate_backing": {"type": "major_tech_company"}
})

report = analyzer.generate_ecosystem_report()
viability = analyzer.assess_viability()

Constructor Parameters (ecosystem_data dict):

Key	Type	Default	Description
`technology`	str	`"Unknown"`	Technology name
`github`	dict	`{}`	GitHub metrics: `stars`, `forks`, `contributors`, `commits_last_month`, `avg_issue_response_hours`, `issue_resolution_rate`, `releases_per_year`, `active_maintainers`, `open_issues`
`npm`	dict	`{}`	npm metrics: `weekly_downloads`, `version`, `dependencies_count`, `days_since_last_publish`
`community`	dict	`{}`	Community metrics: `stackoverflow_questions`, `job_postings`, `tutorials_count`, `forum_members`
`corporate_backing`	dict	`{}`	Backing info: `type` (one of `major_tech_company`, `established_company`, `startup_backed`, `community_led`, `none`), `funding_millions`

Health Score Weights: github_health 25%, npm_health 20%, community_health 20%, corporate_backing 15%, maintenance_health 20%.

Key Methods:

generate_ecosystem_report() -- Complete report with health scores, viability, and formatted metrics
calculate_health_score() -- Component scores and weighted overall score
assess_viability() -- Viability level, risk assessment, strengths, and recommendation

Output Format: Python dictionary with nested health scores, viability assessment, and formatted metrics.

security_assessor.py

Purpose: Evaluate security posture and compliance readiness for technology stacks. Scores vulnerabilities, patch responsiveness, built-in security features, and track record. Assesses compliance against GDPR, SOC2, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS.

Usage:

from security_assessor import SecurityAssessor

assessor = SecurityAssessor({
    "technology": "Express",
    "vulnerabilities": {
        "critical_last_12m": 0, "high_last_12m": 2,
        "avg_critical_patch_days": 7, "has_security_team": True
    },
    "security_features": {
        "encryption_in_transit": True, "authentication": True,
        "input_validation": True, "csrf_protection": True
    },
    "compliance_requirements": ["SOC2", "GDPR"]
})

report = assessor.generate_security_report()
compliance = assessor.assess_compliance(["SOC2", "GDPR"])

Constructor Parameters (security_data dict):

Key	Type	Default	Description
`technology`	str	`"Unknown"`	Technology name
`vulnerabilities`	dict	`{}`	Vulnerability data: `critical_last_12m`, `high_last_12m`, `medium_last_12m`, `low_last_12m`, `critical_last_3y`, `high_last_3y`, `medium_last_3y`, `low_last_3y`, `avg_critical_patch_days`, `avg_high_patch_days`, `has_security_team`, `years_since_major_incident`, `has_security_certifications`, `has_bug_bounty_program`, `security_audits_per_year`, `common_vulnerability_types`
`security_features`	dict	`{}`	Boolean feature flags: `encryption_at_rest`, `encryption_in_transit`, `authentication`, `authorization`, `input_validation`, `rate_limiting`, `csrf_protection`, `xss_protection`, `sql_injection_protection`, `audit_logging`, `mfa_support`, `rbac`, `secrets_management`, `security_headers`, `cors_configuration`
`compliance_requirements`	list	`[]`	Standards to assess: `GDPR`, `SOC2`, `HIPAA`, `PCI_DSS`

Security Score Weights: vulnerability_score 30%, patch_responsiveness 25%, security_features 30%, track_record 15%.

Key Methods:

generate_security_report() -- Full report with score, compliance, vulnerabilities, and recommendations
calculate_security_score() -- Component scores with letter grade (A-F)
assess_compliance(standards) -- Per-standard readiness with missing features list
identify_vulnerabilities() -- Categorized vulnerability report with trend analysis

Output Format: Python dictionary with security scores, compliance assessments, and risk level.

migration_analyzer.py

Purpose: Analyze migration complexity, estimate effort in person-hours and calendar months, assess technical/business/team risks, and recommend a migration approach (direct, phased, or strangler pattern) based on complexity scoring.

Usage:

from migration_analyzer import MigrationAnalyzer

analyzer = MigrationAnalyzer({
    "source_technology": "Angular 1.x",
    "target_technology": "React",
    "codebase_stats": {
        "lines_of_code": 50000, "num_components": 200,
        "architecture_change_level": "significant",
        "current_test_coverage": 0.6
    },
    "team": {"team_size": 6, "target_tech_experience": "low"},
    "constraints": {"downtime_tolerance": "low"}
})

plan = analyzer.generate_migration_plan()
effort = analyzer.estimate_effort()
risks = analyzer.assess_risks()

Constructor Parameters (migration_data dict):

Key	Type	Default	Description
`source_technology`	str	`"Unknown"`	Current technology
`target_technology`	str	`"Unknown"`	Target technology
`codebase_stats`	dict	`{}`	Codebase metrics: `lines_of_code`, `num_files`, `num_components`, `architecture_change_level` (`minimal`/`moderate`/`significant`/`complete`), `has_database`, `database_size_gb`, `schema_changes_required`, `data_transformation_required`, `breaking_api_changes` (`none`/`minimal`/`some`/`many`/`complete`), `num_dependencies`, `dependencies_to_replace`, `current_test_coverage` (0-1), `num_tests`
`team`	dict	`{}`	Team info: `team_size`, `hours_per_week`, `target_tech_experience` (`none`/`low`/`medium`/`high`)
`constraints`	dict	`{}`	Constraints: `downtime_tolerance` (`none`/`low`/`medium`/`high`)

Complexity Score Weights: code_volume 20%, architecture_changes 25%, data_migration 20%, api_compatibility 15%, dependency_changes 10%, testing_requirements 10%.

Key Methods:

generate_migration_plan() -- Complete plan with complexity, effort, risks, approach, and success criteria
calculate_complexity_score() -- Per-factor complexity scores (1-10 scale)
estimate_effort() -- Person-hours, person-months, phase breakdown, and calendar timeline
assess_risks() -- Technical, business, and team risks with severity and mitigation strategies

Output Format: Python dictionary with nested complexity analysis, effort estimation, risk assessment, and recommended approach.

report_generator.py

Purpose: Generate context-aware evaluation reports with progressive disclosure. Auto-detects output context (Claude Desktop vs CLI) and renders rich markdown tables or ASCII-formatted output accordingly. Supports selective section generation.

Usage:

from report_generator import ReportGenerator

generator = ReportGenerator(report_data, output_context="desktop")

executive_summary = generator.generate_executive_summary(max_tokens=300)
full_report = generator.generate_full_report(sections=["executive_summary", "comparison_matrix", "tco_analysis"])
generator.export_to_file("evaluation_report.md")

Constructor Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`report_data`	dict	(required)	Complete evaluation data containing any combination of: `technologies`, `recommendation`, `decision_factors`, `comparison_matrix`, `tco_analysis`, `ecosystem_health`, `security_assessment`, `migration_analysis`, `performance_benchmarks`, `use_case`
`output_context`	str	`None` (auto-detect)	Output format: `"desktop"` for rich markdown, `"cli"` for ASCII tables. Auto-detects via `CLAUDE_DESKTOP` env var and TTY check

Available Report Sections: executive_summary, comparison_matrix, tco_analysis, ecosystem_health, security_assessment, migration_analysis, performance_benchmarks.

Key Methods:

generate_executive_summary(max_tokens=300) -- Concise summary with recommendation, strengths, concerns, and decision factors
generate_full_report(sections=None) -- Complete report with selected sections (all if None)
export_to_file(filename, sections=None) -- Write report to file, returns file path

Output Format: Markdown string (desktop context) or ASCII-formatted string (CLI context).

format_detector.py

Purpose: Automatically detect and parse input format (JSON, YAML, URL, or natural language text) for technology evaluation requests. Extracts technology names, use cases, priorities, and analysis types from unstructured text input.

Usage:

from format_detector import FormatDetector

detector = FormatDetector('Compare React vs Vue for a SaaS dashboard. Priorities: performance, ecosystem.')

format_type = detector.detect_format()   # Returns: "text"
parsed = detector.parse()                # Returns normalized dict
info = detector.get_format_info()        # Returns detection metadata

Constructor Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`input_data`	str	(required)	Raw input string in any supported format

Supported Formats:

JSON -- Valid JSON objects are detected and parsed directly
YAML -- Detected when >50% of lines match key-value or list patterns (simplified parser, no PyYAML dependency)
URL -- Detected when input contains http:// or https:// URLs; categorizes GitHub, npm, and other URLs
Text -- Natural language fallback; extracts technologies from 30+ known keywords, identifies use cases, priorities, and analysis types

Key Methods:

detect_format() -- Returns format string: "json", "yaml", "url", or "text"
parse() -- Parse input and return normalized dictionary with standard keys: technologies, use_case, priorities, analysis_type, format
get_format_info() -- Detection metadata: detected_format, input_length, line_count, parsing_successful

Output Format: Python dictionary normalized to a standard structure with keys: technologies (list), use_case (str), priorities (list), analysis_type (str), format (str).

Technology Stack Evaluator

Table of Contents

Capabilities

Quick Start

Compare Two Technologies

Calculate TCO

Assess Migration

Input Formats

Analysis Types

Quick Comparison (200-300 tokens)

Standard Analysis (500-800 tokens)

Full Report (1200-1500 tokens)

Scripts

stack_comparator.py

tco_calculator.py

ecosystem_analyzer.py

security_assessor.py

migration_analyzer.py

References

Confidence Levels

When to Use

When NOT to Use

Troubleshooting

Success Criteria

Scope & Limitations

Integration Points

Tool Reference

stack_comparator.py

tco_calculator.py

ecosystem_analyzer.py

security_assessor.py

migration_analyzer.py

report_generator.py

format_detector.py