Each debt item has required fields

Severity: Recommended

Debt items need structure to be actionable. A title alone ("refactor auth") doesn't enable prioritization.

Check automatically:

# If using GitHub Issues with labels, sample some items
gh issue list --label "tech-debt" --json title,body --limit 5 2>/dev/null

# Look for debt item template
find . -maxdepth 4 -type f \( -name "*template*" -o -name "*debt*" \) -name "*.md" 2>/dev/null | xargs grep -l -iE "impact|effort|priority" 2>/dev/null

Ask user:

• "Do debt items have a consistent structure?"
• "Can you tell at a glance: what is it, why it matters, how big, how urgent?"
• "Is there a template or convention for logging debt?"

Required fields:

Field	Purpose
Description	What the debt is (specific, not just "refactor X")
Impact	Why it matters (slows dev, causes bugs, blocks features)
Estimated effort	T-shirt size or hours/days
Priority	Urgency relative to other debt

Pass criteria:

• Debt items have structured fields (not just titles)
• Impact is captured (why fix this?)
• Effort is estimated (even rough)
• Priority is assigned or inferable

Fail criteria:

• Items are just titles ("Fix the thing")
• No impact documented (can't prioritize)
• No effort estimate (can't plan)
• No priority (everything looks equal)

Cross-reference with:

• DEBT-001 (structure builds on having a list)
• DEBT-003 (review is where missing fields get filled)

Evidence to capture:

• Sample of 3-5 debt items
• Fields present per item
• Whether template exists
• Consistency across items

---