# Brooks Debt

Tech debt assessment that identifies, classifies, and prioritizes maintainability...

- Repository: https://github.com/hyhmrright/brooks-lint (1554 stars)
- Category: Data and ML
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-10-26
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add hyhmrright/brooks-lint --skill brooks-debt -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add hyhmrright/brooks-lint --skill brooks-debt -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add hyhmrright/brooks-lint --skill brooks-debt -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add hyhmrright/brooks-lint --skill brooks-debt -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add hyhmrright/brooks-lint`

## 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.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# 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`