Tech Debt Triage Skill
Score, prioritize, and plan technical debt remediation.
Trigger Conditions
- Sprint planning session
- Quarterly tech debt review
- User invokes with "triage tech debt" or "debt assessment"
Input Contract
- Required: Codebase metrics (churn, complexity, defect density)
- Optional: Developer pain surveys, postmortem findings, code review history
Output Contract
- Scored and prioritized debt backlog
- Quick wins identified (low effort, high impact)
- Remediation roadmap with effort estimates
- Contagion analysis (debt spreading to new code)
Tool Permissions
- Read: Code metrics, git history, defect tracker, postmortems
- Write: Tech debt reports, backlog items
- Search: Code hotspots and churn patterns
Execution Steps
- Collect code metrics: churn, complexity, defect density
- Identify hotspots (high churn + high complexity)
- Score each debt item: impact (blast radius), effort (team-days), contagion
- Identify quick wins (effort <1d, impact >medium)
- Check for recurring patterns from postmortems
- Create prioritized backlog
- Estimate remediation effort for top items
Success Criteria
- All debt items scored on 3 dimensions
- Quick wins identified and flagged
- Top 10 items have effort estimates
- Contagion patterns identified
Escalation Rules
- Escalate if debt item blocks feature delivery
- Escalate if contagion is spreading to >3 modules
- Escalate if debt remediation requires >1 sprint of dedicated work
Example Invocations
Input: "Triage tech debt for the order processing module"
Output: 14 debt items identified. Top 3: 1) OrderProcessor god class (impact: 9, effort: 3d, contagion: HIGH — 6 modules depend on it), 2) Missing retry logic in payment integration (impact: 8, effort: 1d, contagion: MEDIUM), 3) Hardcoded config values (impact: 5, effort: 0.5d, contagion: LOW — quick win). Remediation roadmap: sprint N (quick wins), sprint N+1 (retry logic), sprint N+2-N+3 (OrderProcessor decomposition).
1---2name: tech-debt-triage3description: Score, prioritize, and plan technical debt remediation4---56# Tech Debt Triage Skill78Score, prioritize, and plan technical debt remediation.910## Trigger Conditions11- Sprint planning session12- Quarterly tech debt review13- User invokes with "triage tech debt" or "debt assessment"1415## Input Contract16- **Required:** Codebase metrics (churn, complexity, defect density)17- **Optional:** Developer pain surveys, postmortem findings, code review history1819## Output Contract20- Scored and prioritized debt backlog21- Quick wins identified (low effort, high impact)22- Remediation roadmap with effort estimates23- Contagion analysis (debt spreading to new code)2425## Tool Permissions26- **Read:** Code metrics, git history, defect tracker, postmortems27- **Write:** Tech debt reports, backlog items28- **Search:** Code hotspots and churn patterns2930## Execution Steps311. Collect code metrics: churn, complexity, defect density322. Identify hotspots (high churn + high complexity)333. Score each debt item: impact (blast radius), effort (team-days), contagion344. Identify quick wins (effort <1d, impact >medium)355. Check for recurring patterns from postmortems366. Create prioritized backlog377. Estimate remediation effort for top items3839## Success Criteria40- All debt items scored on 3 dimensions41- Quick wins identified and flagged42- Top 10 items have effort estimates43- Contagion patterns identified4445## Escalation Rules46- Escalate if debt item blocks feature delivery47- Escalate if contagion is spreading to >3 modules48- Escalate if debt remediation requires >1 sprint of dedicated work4950## Example Invocations5152**Input:** "Triage tech debt for the order processing module"5354**Output:** 14 debt items identified. Top 3: 1) OrderProcessor god class (impact: 9, effort: 3d, contagion: HIGH — 6 modules depend on it), 2) Missing retry logic in payment integration (impact: 8, effort: 1d, contagion: MEDIUM), 3) Hardcoded config values (impact: 5, effort: 0.5d, contagion: LOW — quick win). Remediation roadmap: sprint N (quick wins), sprint N+1 (retry logic), sprint N+2-N+3 (OrderProcessor decomposition).
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