# How it works — roamgap

> What the labels and controls on roamgap mean. A plain-language guide to the
> score, the trips, the five plan strategies, budget mode, regions, and how
> holidays are counted. Source of truth: the repo specs and `docs/GLOSSARY.md`.

## Efficiency

Every trip has an **efficiency** score: total days off ÷ PTO days spent. A
9-day break that costs 4 PTO days scores 2.25. Higher means more time off for
each day you spend.

## Trips and bridge days

A **trip** is one continuous stretch of time off — weekends, public holidays,
and the PTO days you'd take, all in a row.

A **bridge day** is a single working day wedged between a holiday and a weekend.
Taking it as PTO turns a 3-day stretch into four or more — the highest-leverage
day you can spend.

## Plan strategies

The annual planner returns five **year plans**, each optimising for something
different:

| Strategy | Key | Optimises for |
| -------- | --- | ------------- |
| Packed · Best leverage | `packed-efficiency` | The most total days off per PTO day spent. |
| Packed · Longest breaks | `packed-length` | The longest continuous breaks, even at lower efficiency. |
| Spread · Quarterly | `spread-quarterly` | Breaks distributed roughly one per quarter. |
| Spread · Even | `spread-even` | Breaks spaced evenly through the year. |
| One big trip | `single-long` | The whole budget concentrated into a single long break. |

## Budget mode

- **Spend it all** (`exhaust`) — uses your entire PTO budget.
- **Only the good stuff** (`selective`) — stops once the next trip's
  efficiency drops below the worthwhile line, so you keep days back rather than
  spend them on a weak break.

## Regions

Pick a country, and where we have the data, a **region** (state or province,
ISO 3166-2 subdivision) too. Holiday calendars differ inside a country — Bavaria
isn't Berlin — so regional accuracy is free, never paywalled.

## Holidays

When a public holiday lands on a weekend it is effectively lost, and we flag it.
Some countries instead declare a **substitute** holiday on the next working day
— we use whichever your country actually observes.

## Source

- This page: https://roamgap.ike.work/about/how-it-works
- Plan your year: https://roamgap.ike.work/year
- How trips are scored: https://roamgap.ike.work/about/algorithm