How to value a half-built repo
Most builders wildly misprice their own dormant projects. They either think it's worth nothing ("I never finished it") or everything ("I spent six months on this"). The truth is in between, and it's more knowable than you'd expect.
Price follows readiness, not effort
A buyer isn't paying for the hours you put in — they're paying for the head start they get. So the question isn't "how hard was this?" It's "how close is this to being useful to the next owner?"
Cinderella scores that as a readiness number from 0 to 100, using a transparent rubric:
- Completeness — does it have a manifest, a deploy config, real structure?
- Code volume — how much is actually there.
- Tests — a signal the code does what it claims.
- Docs — a README that lets a stranger get oriented.
- Polish — CI, a license, types, architecture notes.
- Cleanliness — how much had to be scrubbed or flagged.
From readiness to a price band
Readiness maps to a suggested price range, adjusted by category demand (an AI-agents repo and a generic CRUD app at the same readiness won't price the same). You'll see a low and a high — a band, not a false-precision number, because a real sale lands where a motivated buyer meets a motivated seller.
Three ways to price it
- Take the suggestion. Fair, fast, and defensible.
- Set your own. Believe it's worth more (or want a quick exit for less)?
Override it.
- List it free for equity. If you'd rather bet on the project than cash out,
offer it for a slice of the upside instead of a price.
The point isn't to squeeze the last dollar. It's to put a fair, honest number on something that's currently worth nothing sitting in a folder — and let it find its second owner.
Ready to see what yours scores? List a repo and the engine runs automatically.