| # Technical Debt Overview | |
| > **Last Updated**: 2025-12-06 | |
| This directory tracks technical debt, known issues, and areas for improvement in the DeepBoner codebase. | |
| ## What is Technical Debt? | |
| Technical debt is the implied cost of future work caused by choosing an easy (but limited) solution now instead of a better approach that would take longer. Like financial debt, it accumulates interest over time. | |
| ## Documentation Structure | |
| ``` | |
| technical-debt/ | |
| ├── index.md # This file - overview and summary | |
| └── debt-registry.md # Itemized debt tracking | |
| ``` | |
| ## Current Debt Summary | |
| | Category | Count | Severity | | |
| |----------|-------|----------| | |
| | Architecture | 3 | Medium | | |
| | Code Quality | 4 | Low | | |
| | Testing | 2 | Medium | | |
| | Documentation | 2 | Low | | |
| | Performance | 2 | Low | | |
| | Dependencies | 1 | Medium | | |
| **Total Items:** 14 | |
| ## Severity Levels | |
| | Level | Description | Action | | |
| |-------|-------------|--------| | |
| | **Critical** | Blocks production or security risk | Fix immediately | | |
| | **High** | Significant impact on reliability | Fix this sprint | | |
| | **Medium** | Impacts developer experience | Plan for fix | | |
| | **Low** | Nice to have improvement | Backlog | | |
| ## How to Use This Documentation | |
| ### For Developers | |
| 1. Before starting work, check if your area has known debt | |
| 2. When you encounter issues, document them here | |
| 3. When fixing debt, update the registry | |
| ### For Planning | |
| 1. Review debt before sprint planning | |
| 2. Allocate capacity for debt reduction | |
| 3. Prioritize by severity and effort | |
| ### For New Contributors | |
| 1. Read this to understand known limitations | |
| 2. Don't be surprised by documented issues | |
| 3. Consider fixing debt as a contribution | |
| ## Adding New Debt Items | |
| Add to `debt-registry.md` using this format: | |
| ```markdown | |
| ### DEBT-XXX: Short Title | |
| **Category:** Architecture | Code Quality | Testing | Documentation | Performance | Dependencies | |
| **Severity:** Critical | High | Medium | Low | |
| **Added:** YYYY-MM-DD | |
| **Status:** Open | In Progress | Resolved | |
| **Description:** | |
| What is the issue? | |
| **Impact:** | |
| How does this affect the codebase/users? | |
| **Current Workaround:** | |
| How are we handling this now? | |
| **Proposed Solution:** | |
| How should we fix this? | |
| **Effort Estimate:** S | M | L | XL | |
| ``` | |
| ## Debt Reduction Goals | |
| ### Phase 1 (Current) | |
| - Document all known debt (this effort) | |
| - Prioritize by impact | |
| ### Phase 2 (Near-term) | |
| - Address all High severity items | |
| - Reduce Medium items by 50% | |
| ### Phase 3 (Long-term) | |
| - Clear all Medium and High items | |
| - Establish debt budget (no net increase) | |
| ## Related Documentation | |
| - [Debt Registry](debt-registry.md) - Complete itemized list | |
| - [Bugs](../bugs/active-bugs.md) - Active bug tracking | |
| - [Contributing](../../CONTRIBUTING.md) - How to help | |