Debt accrues silently; this audits it
Growing technical debt, flagged from code patterns before the refactor becomes a rewrite
- Runs while your laptop is closed
- Reports in Littlebird and by email
- Free plan includes 5 routines
Three areas of tech debt surfaced this week, led by the billing module.
- Billing module: four pull requests you reviewed this week worked around the same date bug instead of fixing it.
- Search service: the query builder grew to 1,800 lines, and two of your review comments asked to split it.
- Settings code: Tuesday's planning meeting notes list it as a known risk with no owner yet.
The problem
Tech debt never announces itself. It accrues in shortcuts labeled 'temporary,' in files nobody wants to open, and in the slow rise of 'how is this so hard to change?'
By the time debt is undeniable, it is also expensive. The cheap moment to name it was six months ago, when it was still small enough to schedule.
What it does
Every Friday, this routine looks across the week's code reviews and discussions and flags where debt is accumulating: growing complexity, repeated workarounds, the files everyone fears.
You get the early ledger, when paying down debt is still a sprint item instead of a quarter-long excavation.
Try the prompt
Copy it into a new Littlebird routine, then set the days and times that fit your schedule
- Open Littlebird and go to Routines. Open the menu next to New Routine and choose Set up manually.
- Paste the prompt into Instructions, then set the days and time under Run.
- Littlebird runs it on schedule from then on. You can pause or edit it anytime. Auto-pause is on by default and pauses it if reports go unread.
You can also choose Create with Littlebird and describe the routine in chat.
Every Friday flag areas of technical debt I noticed this week in code reviews or discussions
Why make it a routine?
Ask a chat about tech debt and it can only reason about the code you paste in. It never saw last week's review comments or the file everyone routes around.
This routine did. It runs every Friday over the code reviews and discussions that crossed your screen, and flags where the workarounds are piling up.
You get the ledger while the fix is still a sprint item, not a quarter.
Frequently asked questions
How does it measure debt?
From what crossed your screen and your connected repos: review comments, churn hotspots, and the workaround trails teams leave behind.
Will it nag the team?
It reports to you. What becomes a ticket, and when, stays an engineering decision.
Can it track one repo only?
Sure. Point the prompt at a single repo or keep it across all of them.
How much is the cheapest plan?
Basic is free and includes routines. Plus is $17 a month billed annually or $20 month to month, after a 14-day free trial.
More routines like this one
Put Littlebird to work
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