Burn Rate Is Participation. Yield Is Skill.

The short version: viberank

viberank is a public leaderboard for AI coding token usage with a vibe coding focus. It ranks developers by token burn — how many tokens you consumed across your sessions. It is gamified, web-based, and built around a simple premise: more tokens burned = higher rank. That is a participation metric, not a skill metric. An operator who re-sends the same context every turn and burns 50M input tokens will top the board. An operator who compounds cached context and produces the same output with 5M tokens will rank lower.

SigRank takes the same token telemetry and asks a different question: is the cascade compounding or burning? The headline metric, Υ Yield = cache_read × output / input², rewards the operator who reuses cached context efficiently and penalizes the one who burns fresh input without leverage. viberank counts the fuel; SigRank measures the lap time. Both matter. Only one tells you who is winning.

Feature comparison

Why burn rate isn't a skill metric

viberank answers "who burned the most tokens?" That is a participation contest, not a skill ranking. Two operators can spend the same 50K input tokens and get wildly different outcomes. One reuses cached context efficiently and produces 30K output tokens; the other re-sends the same context every turn and produces 3K. Same spend, ten-fold difference in signal. On a burn-rate leaderboard, they tie. On a yield leaderboard, the gap is obvious.

SigRank's headline metric, Υ = cache_read × output / input², measures exactly that gap. It rewards the operator who compounds cached context into output and penalizes the one who burns fresh input without leverage. viberank gives you the total; SigRank tells you whether the cascade it describes is compounding or burning.

From burn rate to yield

If you already run viberank, you have the token counts. SigRank reads the same telemetry and adds the scoring layer burn rankings never had:

npm install -g sigrank
sigrank enroll      # create your operator identity
sigrank submit      # reads logs, scores, signs, publishes

Prefer to inspect before you submit? Run sigrank me --dry-run to see your scored payload locally, or paste your token counts into the /score calculator to compute your Υ Yield, class tier, and compression ratio instantly, no account, no submission, just the numbers.

Frequently asked questions

Is SigRank a viberank alternative?

They overlap on having a public leaderboard but diverge on what they rank. viberank ranks developers by token burn — how many tokens you consumed in your vibe coding sessions. SigRank ranks by cascade yield: Υ = cache_read × output / input². If you want a gamified burn-rate competition, viberank is that. If you want to know who is actually efficient at driving AI, SigRank answers that. You can run both — they read the same token telemetry.

Why is burn rate not a skill metric?

Burn rate measures participation, not skill. An operator who re-sends the same context every turn and burns 50M input tokens will top a burn-rate leaderboard. An operator who compounds cached context and produces the same output with 5M tokens will rank lower on burn but higher on yield. Burning more tokens is the opposite of efficient operating. viberank celebrates the biggest burners; SigRank celebrates the most efficient operators. Fuel consumption is not lap time.

What does viberank not measure that SigRank does?

viberank reports total tokens burned and ranks by that single number. SigRank derives the cascade architecture from the same four pillars: Υ Yield (is signal compounding or burning?), compression ratio (output per input), SNR (signal density), Leverage (how much cached context amplifies your input), and Velocity (tokens per unit time). viberank tells you who burned the most; SigRank tells you who got the most signal per token spent. Burn rate rewards the operator who never stops typing; yield rewards the one who compounds.

Can I use both viberank and SigRank?

Yes. viberank gives you the gamified burn-rate competition and the vibe coding community. SigRank gives you the efficiency layer that burn rankings cannot provide. Run `sigrank submit` to publish your cascade score to the SigRank leaderboard, and keep your viberank profile for the burn crowd. The two are complementary, not mutually exclusive. The same local logs feed both.

Which is better for finding the most skilled AI operators?

SigRank. Burn-rate leaderboards conflate activity with skill. An operator who burns 50M tokens re-sending the same context every turn will outrank one who burns 5M tokens but compounds cached context into high-yield output. Yield filters out that noise: it rewards the operator whose cascade is compounding, not the one whose burn rate is highest. If you want to find the best drivers, look at lap times, not fuel consumption.