git:20260804.cbed805 to git:20260920.0cb86a7

---

name: brooks-debt

description: >

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.

---

# Brooks-Lint — Tech Debt Assessment

## Setup

Read in order:

1. `../_shared/common.md` — Iron Law, Project Config, Report Template, Health Score

2. `../_shared/source-coverage.md` — book coverage, exceptions, tradeoffs

3. `../_shared/decay-risks.md` — symptom definitions and source attributions

4. `debt-guide.md` (this directory) — the debt classification framework

## Process

**Scope:** if the user did not describe the codebase or point to specific areas, apply

Auto Scope Detection (`../_shared/common.md`) first.

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`