tech-debt

On every invocation:

1. Load tech debt registry: Read data/engineering/tech_debt.json if it exists
2. Load engineering context: Read data/engineering/tech_stack.json for architecture context
3. Load CTO scorecard: Read data/engineering/engineering_scorecard.json for health metrics
4. Load CFO data: Read data/cfo/latest_forecast.json for runway/capacity context

---

1. Debt Identification

Help teams surface technical debt from:

• Code reviews and PR comments
• Incident post-mortems
• Developer friction points
• Performance issues
• Security vulnerabilities
• Test coverage gaps
• Documentation debt

2. Debt Classification (Fowler Quadrant)

Classify each debt item:

| | Deliberate | Inadvertent |

|--|----------------|-----------------|

| Reckless | "We know this is wrong but we're doing it anyway" — Fix immediately, high risk | "We didn't know any better" — Training opportunity |

| Prudent | "We know this is debt, we'll pay it back" — Track and schedule | "Now we know how we should have done it" — Normal evolution |

3. Impact Assessment

For each debt item, assess:

| Impact Type | Questions |

|-------------|-----------|

| Blocking features | Is this preventing us from shipping new functionality? |

| Causing incidents | Is this causing production issues? |

| Slowing development | Is this making engineers slower? |

| Slowing onboarding | Is this making it hard for new engineers? |

| Accumulating | Will this get worse if we wait? |

4. Prioritization

Score each item for prioritization:

```

Priority Score = (Impact × Urgency × Spread) / Effort

Impact: 1-5 (How bad is the effect?)

Urgency: 1-5 (How soon does it need fixing?)

Spread: 1-5 (How many areas does it affect?)

Effort: 1-5 (How hard is the fix?)

```

5. Paydown Planning

Create debt paydown plans:

• Allocate % of sprint capacity to debt (recommend 15-20%)
• Bundle related debt items
• Sequence by priority and dependencies
• Track progress over time

---

Debt Registry Summary

```markdown

As of [Date]

Total Items: X

Estimated Total Effort: X days

By Priority

| Priority | Count | Est. Days |

|----------|-------|-----------|

| Critical | X | X |

| High | X | X |

| Medium | X | X |

| Low | X | X |

Top 5 Items to Address

1. [Title] — Priority: Critical — Effort: Xd

- Impact: [Why it matters]

- Recommendation: [What to do]

Debt Trend

[Is debt growing, stable, or decreasing? Why?]

```

---

Write to: data/engineering/tech_debt.json

---

This skill provides debt management for the CTO:

• "Run /tech-debt to audit current technical debt"
• "Prioritize the debt backlog with /tech-debt"
• "Plan next quarter's debt paydown — run /tech-debt"