Forecast workflow absorption semimarkov

Forecast terminal workflow outcomes and remaining time from Bayesian transition and lognormal dwell-time posteriors over status histories.

What it's for

Turns existing issue status history into probability-of-completion, cancellation risk, remaining-time ranges, and state bottlenecks for active work.

What you give it

Every tool is a pure function: it computes from what you pass it and reads nothing on its own. Inputs split into evidence you supply from your connected systems, calibration your team owns, and numerical controls that affect precision but never the result's meaning.

Field Type Role Required
current_cases array of objects (3 fields) ≥ 1 item Evidence Yes
dirichlet_prior number ≥ 0.01, ≤ 100 Your calibration Optional
max_detail_rows integer ≥ 1, ≤ 500 Numerical control Optional
max_steps integer ≥ 2, ≤ 100 Your calibration Optional
posterior_draws integer ≥ 200, ≤ 10000 Numerical control Optional
seed integer Numerical control Optional
states array of string ≥ 3 items Evidence Yes
terminal_states array of string ≥ 1 item Evidence Yes
transition_events array of objects (4 fields) ≥ 60 items Evidence Yes

Each transition_events record

Field Type Required
case_id string (non-empty) Yes
entered_at_days number (≥ 0) Yes
id string (non-empty) Yes
state string (non-empty) Yes
Example input
{
  "current_cases": [
    {
      "age_in_state_days": 1,
      "current_state": "active",
      "id": "active-checkout"
    },
    {
      "age_in_state_days": 2,
      "current_state": "review",
      "id": "review-payments"
    }
  ],
  "posterior_draws": 200,
  "seed": 8,
  "states": [
    "backlog",
    "active",
    "review",
    "delivered",
    "cancelled"
  ],
  "terminal_states": [
    "delivered",
    "cancelled"
  ],
  "transition_events": [
    {
      "case_id": "historical-0",
      "entered_at_days": 0,
      "id": "workflow-0-0",
      "state": "backlog"
    },
    {
      "case_id": "historical-0",
      "entered_at_days": 2,
      "id": "workflow-0-1",
      "state": "active"
    },
    {
      "case_id": "historical-0",
      "entered_at_days": 6,
      "id": "workflow-0-2",
      "state": "review"

Truncated for display — the full payload is 509 lines.

What you get back

This is the actual output of running the example above — computed by the same function the platform calls, not an illustration.

Example output
{
  "assumptions": [
    "The declared state is Markov-sufficient for the next-state distribution and dwell-time law within a stable analysis epoch.",
    "Historical exits are representative of current work; status instrumentation, workflow definitions, and censoring rules are unchanged.",
    "Dirichlet transition and lognormal dwell posteriors quantify sampling uncertainty but not omitted states, dependency shocks, or capacity feedback.",
    "Forecasts concern project or work-item flow and must not be interpreted as individual performance or effort scores."
  ],
  "case_forecasts": [
    {
      "age_in_state_days": 1,
      "case_id": "active-checkout",
      "current_state": "active",
      "nonabsorption_probability": 0,
      "remaining_days_p50": 9.0173,
      "remaining_days_p90": 12.6818,
      "terminal_probabilities": {
        "cancelled": 0.245,
        "delivered": 0.755
      }
    },
    {
      "age_in_state_days": 2,
      "case_id": "review-payments",
      "current_state": "review",
      "nonabsorption_probability": 0,
      "remaining_days_p50": 4.0326,
      "remaining_days_p90": 4.4785,
      "terminal_probabilities": {
        "cancelled": 0.225,
        "delivered": 0.775
      }
    }
  ],
  "decision": "workflow_absorption_forecast_available",
  "method": "bayesian_lognormal_semimarkov_absorption_forecast_v1",
  "portfolio_forecast": {
    "nonabsorption_probability": 0,
    "remaining_days_p50": 6.4551,
    "remaining_days_p90": 9.7446,
    "terminal_probabilities": {
      "cancelled": 0.235,
      "delivered": 0.765
    }
  },

Truncated for display — the full payload is 95 lines.

How it works

Sequential Bayesian & bandits — Learn while deciding — update beliefs as evidence arrives and choose where the next unit of effort is worth spending.

  1. 1 Forecast terminal workflow outcomes and remaining time from Bayesian transition and lognormal dwell-time posteriors over status histories.
  2. 2 Evaluate the method-specific diagnostics and gates returned by the function, then abstain unless the declared decision clears them under locally governed thresholds.

Before you trust it

Every tool in the catalog ships with the conditions under which its answer is meaningful — and the conditions under which it should abstain instead of guessing.

Assumptions & guardrails

  • The likelihood or reward model, prior support, action logging, delayed outcomes, and any stationarity assumptions match the deployment process.
  • Posterior probability and adaptive selection are model-conditional; they are not substitutes for randomized propensities or guaranteed safety.

Minimum evidence

  • transition_events: at least 60 rows/items
  • current_cases: at least 1 rows/items
  • states: at least 3 rows/items
  • terminal_states: at least 1 rows/items

How to validate it

Use chronological train/calibration/test windows, compare proper scores and decision value with a simple baseline, and recalibrate only from outcomes resolved after prediction time.

Calibrating it to your org

Same for everyone

The mathematical kernel, validation rules, method version, and JSON output semantics are organization-independent; no tenant-trained coefficients or company benchmark is embedded in the function.

Specific to you

  • days since each case's first status
  • latest non-terminal case state
  • age in latest state
  • stable workflow epoch
  • terminal status definition
  • forecast population

Calibration workflow

  1. 1 Define the management decision, target outcome, aggregate unit, privacy boundary, cadence, and prediction/intervention horizon for this organization.
  2. 2 Build a tenant-scoped historical cohort using only information available before each prediction or decision; preserve zero periods, censoring, assignment probabilities, and unresolved outcomes when the method requires them.
  3. 3 Estimate statistical parameters on training history, but obtain costs, utilities, risk tolerance, practical-effect thresholds, capacity, and policy constraints from accountable decision owners.
  4. 4 Validate on later time windows or held-out aggregate units at the deployment grain, against a simple baseline and the function-specific validation strategy.
  5. 5 Deploy only if the returned decision clears evidence, overlap, calibration, robustness, and guardrail checks; warning, unsupported, schema-gap, and fallback decisions are abstentions.
  6. 6 Monitor realized outcomes, data drift, coverage, and decision regret; recalibrate at a governed cadence or after a detected regime/definition change, never merely because a stakeholder dislikes the result.

Call it from your AI

You don't wire up 388 tools in your MCP client. The GitRevio MCP server exposes 20 tools, three of which let an agent search the catalog, read a tool's schema, and run it — so the assistant finds this one on its own.

gitrevio_capabilities_search
  { "q": "forecast terminal workflow outcomes and remaining" }
  → finds "forecast_workflow_absorption_semimarkov"

gitrevio_capability_describe
  { "capability_id": "forecast_workflow_absorption_semimarkov" }
  → returns the input schema and agent guidance shown on this page

gitrevio_capability_run
  { "capability_id": "forecast_workflow_absorption_semimarkov", "arguments": { ... } }
  → returns the result shown above

Works in Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, Continue.dev, Goose and Aider. See the MCP server.

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