Can this skill detect specific code smells automatically?

Yes, the skill is designed to identify patterns like God Classes, Duplicated Code, and Missing Tests, then categorize them into actionable debt items.

What is the Fowler Debt Quadrant used in this skill?

It is a classification tool used by the skill to distinguish between deliberate vs. inadvertent and prudent vs. reckless debt, helping teams understand the root causes of their technical issues.

What is the 'Principal and Interest' model for tech debt?

This model treats the cost to fix debt as 'Principal' and the ongoing time or money wasted due to that debt as 'Interest,' helping teams calculate exactly when a fix pays for itself.

How does this help with project planning?

It provides a structured framework to prioritize fixes based on their severity and business impact, transforming debt remediation from a reactive chore into a data-driven investment.

Does it support dependency analysis?

Yes, it includes patterns for identifying Dependency Debt, such as outdated packages, version conflicts, and known security vulnerabilities in third-party libraries.

Technical Debt Assessment

Name: Technical Debt Assessment
Author: melodic-software

bymelodic-software

•

Productivity & Workflow

Identifies, quantifies, and prioritizes technical debt to enable data-driven remediation and investment planning.

The Technical Debt Assessment skill provides a systematic framework for Claude to analyze software projects for hidden technical debt and its long-term impact. By utilizing the Fowler Debt Quadrant and a financial Principal-Interest model, it allows teams to go beyond simple code smells to calculate the actual cost of delay and the break-even point for refactoring. This skill helps developers move from intuitive concerns about code quality to objective proofs of business impact by quantifying productivity loss, quality risks, and velocity slowdowns associated with specific architectural or code-level issues.

Key Features

01Financial modeling of 'Principal' (fix cost) and 'Interest' (recurring maintenance cost).

02Prioritization logic based on break-even dates and business risk to guide remediation planning.

03Automated identification of common patterns like God Classes, Duplicated Code, and Dependency Debt.

04Comprehensive impact assessment across developer productivity, quality, velocity, and team morale.

05Classification of debt using Fowler's Technical Debt Quadrant (Prudent/Reckless/Deliberate/Inadvertent).

065 GitHub stars

Use Cases

01Establishing a standardized debt-tracking lifecycle from identification to scheduled resolution.

02Justifying refactoring sprints to stakeholders using ROI-based interest calculations and break-even analysis.

03Auditing a legacy codebase to identify high-interest debt before a major feature expansion.

What are Skills?·How to Install

Install with 🐟 Skill.Fish

npx skillfish add melodic-software/claude-code-plugins tech-debt-assessment

For use in Claude.ai and ChatGPT

Download Skill