Technical debt
also: tech debt
The future cost of shortcuts taken in code today. Quick fixes make things work now, but make later changes slower and riskier until someone cleans them up.
Accumulated design and implementation compromises, such as duplicated logic, missing tests, outdated dependencies, or tangled code, that raise the cost and risk of future changes. Like financial debt, it can be a deliberate, useful choice, but it accrues interest.
Shoving everything into a closet before guests arrive. The room looks clean tonight. But every time you need something from that closet, it takes longer, and one day it all falls out.
Agents produce working code very fast, including copy-pasted and hacky code. Each shortcut makes the next request harder for the agent to get right. Knowing the term lets you decide when to pay it down.
This works, but it adds technical debt: the discount logic is now duplicated in three places. I'd suggest moving it into one shared function in a follow-up.
Before we add more features, list the biggest sources of technical debt in this codebase, ranked by how much they slow down or risk future changes. Don't fix anything yet.
Treating all technical debt as bad. Taking a shortcut to ship on time can be the right call, as long as you know you took it and plan to come back.