Brooks Debt

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. 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.