Bus factor

What it measures

A knowledge-loss simulation: it ranks contributors anonymously by how many areas they have recently authored, then asks what share of active areas would have no remaining recent author if the most-active one, two, three… stepped away. Areas are directories; "recent" means within this window.

Why it matters

Concentrated knowledge is a delivery risk: if one person holds an area alone, a vacation or departure stalls it. This shows where to spread knowledge before that happens.

How to read it

• The curve climbs with each simulated departure — a steep first step means heavy reliance on one person's knowledge.
• The drilldown lists areas by coverage, thinnest first — those are your onboarding targets.
• It ranks contributors anonymously and never names anyone; it points at areas, not people.

Anti-blame

This is an onboarding planner, not a scorecard. No individual is identified, ranked, or scored — the simulation is fully anonymized, and the panel is suppressed when there are too few active authors to stay anonymous.

Common misreads

A high number is not a verdict on any person — it is a prompt to spread knowledge across the team.