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Agent skill

Brooks Debt

by hyhmrright in hyhmrright/brooks-lint

Tech debt assessment that identifies, classifies, and prioritizes maintainability problems — helping teams build a refactoring roadmap — drawing on twelve classic engineering books.

MITAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install Brooks Debt

skills CLI
$ npx skills add hyhmrright/brooks-lint --skill brooks-debt -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install hyhmrright/brooks-lint brooks-debt --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/hyhmrright/brooks-lint.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/brooks-debt .claude/skills/brooks-debt && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
brooks-debt
GitHub stars
1.5k
Used in
1 other repo
Token cost
~406 tokens
SKILL.md length
124 words
Files
2
Skills in repo
7
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Tech debt assessment that identifies, classifies, and prioritizes maintainability problems — helping teams build a refactoring roadmap — drawing on twelve classic engineering books.

  • Works in 4 steps: ../_shared/common.md — Iron Law, Project… → ../_shared/source-coverage.md — book… → ../_shared/decay-risks.md — symptom… → …
  • : user asks about tech debt
  • SKILL.md covers Setup and Process
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Brooks Debt is an agent skill from hyhmrright/brooks-lint. 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 —…

Its SKILL.md is about 410 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 1 other file (for example `debt-guide.md`).

It sits in Development, covering Technical debt, Code quality and Refactoring. It works with Kubernetes. The repository describes itself as: AI code reviews grounded in 12 classic engineering books — decay risk diagnostics with book citations, severity labels, and 6 analysis modes including full-sweep auto-fix. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • : user asks about tech debt
  • Refactoring priorities
  • What to clean up first
  • Asks why is this so hard to change?

Example prompts

  • “why is this so hard to change?”
  • “what should we fix first?”
  • “how do I justify refactoring to management?”
  • “/brooks-debt”

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  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

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit b6ef8a1. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Brooks Debt loads about 406 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 162 tokens; SKILL.md has 124 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~162
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~406

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from hyhmrright/brooks-lint at commit b6ef8a1, republished under its MIT licence (© hyhmrright). 124 words, ~406 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/brooks-debt/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 1 other file; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
brooks-debt
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.
metadata.opencode/slash
true

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

© hyhmrright, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 1 other file in skills/brooks-debt of hyhmrright/brooks-lint.

  • SKILL.md
  • debt-guide.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit b6ef8a1

Used in 1 other repository

We found 1 copy of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 1 other GitHub owner. This page covers the copy in hyhmrright/brooks-lint, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

Brooks Debt next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Brooks Debt compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Brooks Debt this skillhyhmrright/brooks-lint1.5k1 repos~406Automated safety check: PassMIT
Software Design Reviewatilladeniz/Kubeli387—~5.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Systematic Code Refactoringluongnv89/claude-howto42k—~3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Code Refactoring Workflowluongnv89/claude-howto42k—~3.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
FIXME Resolvertailcallhq/forgecode7.6k—~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
DesloppifyGit-on-my-level/codex-autorunner875—~3.4kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Works with

Categories

Questions about Brooks Debt

What does Brooks Debt do?

Tech debt assessment that identifies, classifies, and prioritizes maintainability problems — helping teams build a refactoring roadmap — drawing on twelve classic engineering books. Brooks Debt is an agent skill from hyhmrright/brooks-lint. Tech debt assessment that identifies, classifies, and prioritizes maintainability problems — helping teams build a refactoring roadmap — drawing on twelve classic engineering books.

When should I use Brooks Debt?

Brooks Debt fits situations like: : user asks about tech debt; refactoring priorities; what to clean up first; asks why is this so hard to change?.

How do I install Brooks Debt in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add hyhmrright/brooks-lint --skill brooks-debt -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/brooks-debt in hyhmrright/brooks-lint) into .claude/skills/brooks-debt in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Brooks Debt in Codex?

Run `npx skills add hyhmrright/brooks-lint --skill brooks-debt -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/brooks-debt in hyhmrright/brooks-lint) into .agents/skills/brooks-debt in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Brooks Debt in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add hyhmrright/brooks-lint --skill brooks-debt -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/brooks-debt, .gemini/skills/brooks-debt, .github/skills/brooks-debt and .opencode/skills/brooks-debt in your project.

What does Brooks Debt need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Brooks Debt is instructions for the agent only.

Does Brooks Debt access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Brooks Debt safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Brooks Debt use?

Brooks Debt is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Brooks Debt use?

About 406 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 1.6k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Brooks Debt?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Brooks Debt: Software Design Review (atilladeniz/Kubeli, 387 stars), Systematic Code Refactoring (luongnv89/claude-howto, 42k stars), Code Refactoring Workflow (luongnv89/claude-howto, 42k stars) and FIXME Resolver (tailcallhq/forgecode, 7.6k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Brooks Debt?

hyhmrright (a GitHub user) maintains it in hyhmrright/brooks-lint, which has 1,513 GitHub stars. The repository holds 7 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 5, 2026.

Source: hyhmrright/brooks-lint on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.