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CONCEPT

dette technique

The accumulated cost of expedient code and design choices that must later be reworked — interest paid in slower change and more defects. In AI-assisted development it recurs as a specific risk: agents can generate large volumes of code that passes tests yet erodes long-term quality when generation outpaces review.

Origin

The metaphor was introduced by Ward Cunningham in 1992 to explain the cost of expedient design choices to non-technical stakeholders.

root cause
unregulated use of agentic AI
description
Long-term accumulation of low-quality code
risk
Amplified by AI without testing discipline
associated_risk
insufficient oversight of AI-generated code

Related entities

Fiches (4)