Technical Debt Assessment

aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts/skills/technical-debt-assessment

by aj-geddes3f5182cfd739No license355 starsListed Oct 8, 2026Updated Oct 8, 2026Repository updated 7 months ago

Assess, quantify, and prioritize technical debt using code analysis, metrics, and impact analysis. Use when planning refactoring, evaluating codebases, or making architectural decisions.

Instructions onlySoftware Development

AI-generated overview

Assess, quantify, and prioritize technical debt using code analysis, metrics, and impact analysis.

What it does: This skill provides a structured method for identifying, measuring, and managing technical debt in a codebase. It defines a debt item model with category, severity, effort, impact, and interest fields, and describes how to calculate priority and track debt over time. It also points to reference guides for a technical debt calculator and a code quality scanner, plus a process template.
When to use it: Use it when evaluating legacy code, prioritizing refactoring work, planning sprints, running code quality initiatives, performing acquisition due diligence, or making architectural decisions.
Requirements: No scripts are shipped; it is instructions and reference documents only. Following the reference guides may require the agent to read the bundled markdown files.

Overview

Systematically identify, measure, and manage technical debt to make informed decisions about code quality investments.

When to Use

Legacy code evaluation
Refactoring prioritization
Sprint planning
Code quality initiatives
Acquisition due diligence
Architectural decisions

Quick Start

Minimal working example:

typescript

interface DebtItem {  id: string;  title: string;  description: string;  category: "code" | "architecture" | "test" | "documentation" | "security";  severity: "low" | "medium" | "high" | "critical";  effort: number; // hours  impact: number; // 1-10 scale  interest: number; // cost per sprint if not fixed}
class TechnicalDebtAssessment {  private items: DebtItem[] = [];
  addDebtItem(item: DebtItem): void {    this.items.push(item);  }
  calculatePriority(item: DebtItem): number {    const severityWeight = {      low: 1,      medium: 2,      high: 3,      critical: 4,    };// ... (see reference guides for full implementation)

interface DebtItem {  id: string;  title: string;  description: string;  category: "code" | "architecture" | "test" | "documentation" | "security";  severity: "low" | "medium" | "high" | "critical";  effort: number; // hours  impact: number; // 1-10 scale  interest: number; // cost per sprint if not fixed}
class TechnicalDebtAssessment {  private items: DebtItem[] = [];
  addDebtItem(item: DebtItem): void {    this.items.push(item);  }
  calculatePriority(item: DebtItem): number {    const severityWeight = {      low: 1,      medium: 2,      high: 3,      critical: 4,    };// ... (see reference guides for full implementation)

Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the references/ directory:

Best Practices

✅ DO

Quantify debt impact
Prioritize by ROI
Track debt over time
Include debt in sprints
Document debt decisions
Set quality gates

❌ DON'T

Ignore technical debt
Fix everything at once
Skip impact analysis
Make emotional decisions

Source and attribution

Source:aj-geddes/useful-ai-promptsinskills/technical-debt-assessmentat commit3f5182c

License: No license

Content belongs to its original authors. SourceWeft indexes it from a public repository.

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Guide	Contents
Technical Debt Calculator [blocked]	Technical Debt Calculator
Code Quality Scanner [blocked]	Code Quality Scanner

Technical Debt Assessment

Technical Debt Assessment

Table of Contents

Overview

When to Use

Quick Start

Reference Guides

Best Practices

✅ DO

❌ DON'T

Source and attribution

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