switch-costlisted

# Switch Cost The decision to leave a tool gets made on the reasons to leave. The cost of actually leaving shows up afterward, when the export turns out to be a PDF nobody can reuse, or the integration nobody remembers building stops firing silently. The failure this exists to prevent: **finding out what you lose on the way out, after you have already committed to leaving.** Not whether to leave. What leaving actually costs, named before the decision is final rather than discovered during the move. --- ## What this needs **Minimum: the tool's name.** Nothing else. It will tell you what to go and check, and mark every gap it could not fill. **Better with** what is actually stored in it: content, configuration, integrations, history, other people's access. A general answer about a category of tool is not the same as an answer about this one, in this state. **Best with** the destination named. Switching cost is not a property of the tool being left; it is a property of the gap between the tool being left and the tool being moved to. "What breaks if I leave Notion" is a weaker question than "what breaks if I move from Notion to Obsidian," and the second is the one with a real answer. ### Two modes, and say which one you ran **Researched mode.** Web access is available. Check the tool's actual export documentation, its stated data-retention policy after cancellation, and its contract or terms for notice periods and minimum terms. **Guided mode.** No web access. Hand over