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.