Contents
- The Stack Overflow Developer Survey shows that AI coding tools have become mainstream in professional development workflows, with adoption rates exceeding 70% among active developers.
- Stealth Labz's production tool stack cost $2,634 for AI tooling across the entire portfolio build:
- The tool stack is not what produced the results.
- The AI tools themselves are commodity-priced.
Building production software with AI requires two core tool categories: an AI coding assistant (Anthropic Claude or OpenAI) and standard development infrastructure (version control, hosting, deployment). Stealth Labz shipped 596,903 lines of production code across 10 systems using $2,634 total in AI tooling over a 116-day build period.
What the Industry Uses
The Stack Overflow Developer Survey shows that AI coding tools have become mainstream in professional development workflows, with adoption rates exceeding 70% among active developers. The most commonly used tools include GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, and Claude. However, there is a critical distinction between using AI for code suggestions and using AI as a core production partner within a structured execution model.
The Actual Tool Stack (Audited)
Stealth Labz's production tool stack cost $2,634 for AI tooling across the entire portfolio build:
| Tool | Cost | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic/Claude | $1,333 | Primary AI development partner -- architecture, code generation, debugging, documentation |
| OpenAI | $1,301 | Secondary AI support -- analysis, content generation, alternative approaches |
| Leonardo.AI | $30 | Visual asset generation |
| Total AI tooling | $2,664 |
Beyond AI tools, the production stack uses standard infrastructure that any developer would recognize: PHP/Laravel framework, Git version control (2,561 commits tracked), standard cloud hosting, and conventional deployment pipelines.
What Matters More Than the Tools
The tool stack is not what produced the results. The Compounding Execution Model (CEM) -- the methodology governing how those tools are used -- drove the 4.6x velocity increase and 97.6% cost reduction. Key operational metrics that depend on methodology, not tooling:
- 11 canonical mechanisms governing execution flow (Foundation, Sweeps, Governor, Scaffold, Burst, and 6 others)
- 95%+ template reuse at portfolio maturity -- meaning new projects inherit proven infrastructure instead of rebuilding it
- $0.06 cost per line of code -- driven by compounding reuse, not by any single tool's capability
- 4-5 days to MVP at maturity, down from 24 days for the first project
What Decision-Makers Should Evaluate
The AI tools themselves are commodity-priced. Claude Pro and OpenAI Plus subscriptions run $20-$200/month depending on usage tier. The differentiation is in how the tools are integrated into a repeatable production workflow. An operator spending $105/month on AI tools with a mature execution model will outperform a team spending $5,000/month on premium tooling without one.
The monthly AI tool cost at steady state for Stealth Labz is approximately $105/month -- less than a single SaaS subscription for most businesses.
Related: [FAQ #74 — Cost Per Line of Code With AI]
References
- Stack Overflow (2025). "Developer Survey." AI tools adoption and usage data.