Tech Debt Auditor

What this skill does

This skill directs the agent to systematically scan a codebase for technical debt, categorize every item by type, and then rank each item against an effort/impact matrix so you can prioritize what to tackle first. It distinguishes between cosmetic debt (naming, formatting), structural debt (tangled dependencies, god classes), and strategic debt (shortcuts taken deliberately). The output is a prioritized backlog, not just a complaint list.

Use this when you're planning a refactoring sprint, preparing for a new feature that will touch old code, or doing a code quality review before onboarding new engineers.

How to use

Claude Code / Cline

Copy this file to .agents/skills/tech-debt-auditor/SKILL.md in your project root.

Then ask:

• "Use the Tech Debt Auditor skill on the src/payments/ directory."
• "Run a full tech debt audit on this repository using the Tech Debt Auditor skill."

Point to a specific directory, a single file, or ask for a whole-repo scan. For large repos, start with the highest-churn directories.