# 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