TODO/FIXME count in codebase

Severity: Optional

TODO and FIXME comments are informal debt markers. Tracking them provides a signal of accumulated small debts.

Check automatically:

# Count TODOs and FIXMEs
grep -rE "TODO|FIXME|HACK|XXX" --include="*.ts" --include="*.tsx" --include="*.js" --include="*.jsx" --include="*.py" --include="*.go" --include="*.rb" . 2>/dev/null | grep -v node_modules | grep -v vendor | wc -l

# Show sample with context
grep -rn "TODO\|FIXME" --include="*.ts" --include="*.tsx" --include="*.js" --include="*.py" . 2>/dev/null | grep -v node_modules | head -15

# Check for eslint rule on TODOs
grep -riE "no-warning-comments|todo" .eslintrc* eslint.config* 2>/dev/null

# Look for TODO tracking in CI
grep -riE "todo|fixme" .github/workflows/ --include="*.yml" 2>/dev/null

Ask user:

• "Do you track TODO/FIXME count?"
• "Is there a policy?" (e.g., TODOs must have issue links, max age)
• "Are old TODOs ever cleaned up?"

Patterns to watch for:

Pattern	Concern
TODO with no context	Unknown scope, never gets done
FIXME with no issue link	Not tracked, will be forgotten
HACK or XXX	Known bad code, technical debt
Ancient TODOs (years old)	Dead comments, noise

Pass criteria:

• TODO count known or easily queryable
• TODOs have context (issue link, name, date)
• Count is stable or declining over time
• Old TODOs periodically reviewed

Fail criteria:

• No visibility into TODO count
• Hundreds of orphaned TODOs with no context
• Count growing unchecked
• TODOs from 3+ years ago still present

Cross-reference with:

• DEBT-001 (TODOs are informal debt; formal list is better)
• Section 28 (Code quality tools)

Evidence to capture:

• TODO/FIXME count
• Sample of oldest TODOs
• Whether policy exists
• ESLint rule configured

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