What problem does it solve?
Unmanaged technical debt slows development velocity, introduces recurring bugs, creates security vulnerabilities, and leaves teams unsure how to prioritize fixes or avoid repeating past mistakes.
Core Features & Use Cases
- Debt Taxonomy & Identification: Classify debt using the Ward Cunningham/Martin Fowler quadrant, spot code and architecture red flags, and use automated fitness functions to catch violations early.
- Quantification & Prioritization: Calculate debt ratios, estimate interest rates, and score debt items to focus on high-impact fixes first.
- Paydown Strategies & Governance: Apply proven patterns like the Boy Scout Rule and Strangler Fig, reserve sprint capacity for debt work, and use ADRs to document architectural decisions to prevent future inadvertent debt. Use Case: A team struggling with a legacy auth module that blocks new SSO features can use this skill to classify the debt, calculate its high interest rate, prioritize it for the next sprint, and apply the Strangler Fig pattern to replace it incrementally without disrupting existing users.
Quick Start
Use the technical-debt skill to audit your current codebase for technical debt, generate a prioritized debt register, and create a 20% sprint capacity plan for debt paydown.
