# Brooks Debt

> > 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 is this so hard to change?", "what should we fix first?", or "how do I justify refactoring to management?". Do NOT trigger for: server health checks, HTTP /health endpoints, Kubernetes probes, database health, or application uptime — "health" in those contexts is infrastructure, not code quality. Also not for single-function refactoring questions.

- Skill: `thedixitjain/brooks-debt-2` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add thedixitjain/brooks-debt-2`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/thedixitjain/brooks-debt-2/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Product & Planning
- Author: thedixitjain (https://skillmd.com/u/thedixitjain)
- Updated: 2026-09-09
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/thedixitjain/brooks-debt-2

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# Brooks-Lint — Tech Debt Assessment

## 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`

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**Source:** [`hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins`](https://github.com/hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins) → `plugins/hyhmrright/brooks-lint/skills/brooks-debt/SKILL.md`