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tech-debt

by anthropics

Identify, categorize, and prioritize technical debt. Trigger with "tech debt", "technical debt audit", "what should we refactor", "code health", or when the user asks about code quality, refactoring priorities, or maintenance backlog.

Overview

SKILL.mdRead at 8444efc

Tech Debt Management

Systematically identify, categorize, and prioritize technical debt.

Categories

TypeExamplesRisk
Code debtDuplicated logic, poor abstractions, magic numbersBugs, slow development
Architecture debtMonolith that should be split, wrong data storeScaling limits
Test debtLow coverage, flaky tests, missing integration testsRegressions ship
Dependency debtOutdated libraries, unmaintained dependenciesSecurity vulns
Documentation debtMissing runbooks, outdated READMEs, tribal knowledgeOnboarding pain
Infrastructure debtManual deploys, no monitoring, no IaCIncidents, slow recovery

Prioritization Framework

Score each item on:

  • Impact: How much does it slow the team down? (1-5)
  • Risk: What happens if we don't fix it? (1-5)
  • Effort: How hard is the fix? (1-5, inverted — lower effort = higher priority)

Priority = (Impact + Risk) x (6 - Effort)

Output

Produce a prioritized list with estimated effort, business justification for each item, and a phased remediation plan that can be done alongside feature work.

Files 1 file

Install it by hand

Deska runs this for you, for every agent you pick. To run it yourself in a terminal:

npx skills add anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins --skill tech-debt

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