brooks-debt – Coding skill for AI agents

Brooks-Lint — Tech Debt Assessment

When to Use

Use this skill when you need tech debt assessment that identifies, classifies, and prioritizes maintainability problems — helping teams build a refactoring roadmap — drawing on twelve classic engineering books. Triggers when: user asks about tech debt, refactoring priorities, what to clean up first, or asks "why...

Setup

1. If available in an explicitly supplied upstream installation, read ../_shared/common.md for the Iron Law, Project Config, Report Template, and Health Score rules

2. Read ../_shared/source-coverage.md for book-level coverage, exceptions, and tradeoffs

3. Read ../_shared/decay-risks.md for symptom definitions and source attributions

4. Read debt-guide.md in this directory for the debt classification framework

Process

If the user has not described the codebase or pointed to specific areas: apply Auto

Scope Detection from ../_shared/common.md to determine the assessment scope before proceeding.

1. Scan for all six decay risks (Step 1 of the guide); list every finding before scoring

2. Apply the Pain × Spread priority formula and classify debt intent (Steps 2–3 of the guide)

3. Group findings by decay risk (Step 4 of the guide)

4. Output using the Report Template from common.md, plus the Debt Summary Table

Mode line in report: Tech Debt Assessment

Limitations

• Use this skill only when the task clearly matches its upstream source and local project context.
• Verify commands, generated code, dependencies, credentials, and external service behavior before applying changes.
• Do not treat examples as a substitute for environment-specific tests, security review, or user approval for destructive or costly actions.

Standalone catalog fallback

The ../_shared/* files referenced above are not bundled in this catalog. Do not claim their score, report or source-coverage rules were followed. The bundled debt guide can be used independently: define the authorized scope, record each symptom with current file/line evidence, its observed consequence and proposed remedy, then label Pain × Spread as a local prioritization heuristic. Unknown team intent stays unknown; missing documentation does not prove a shortcut was accidental. Report reviewed and unreviewed areas explicitly.