StackLift AI
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Glossary

Technical debt

The future cost of shortcuts taken in code or architecture today.

Technical debt is the accumulated future cost of expedient shortcuts in code, architecture, or tooling - the extra work it will take later to change a system that was built quickly rather than cleanly.

Some debt is a reasonable trade to ship faster; the danger is unmanaged debt that quietly slows every future change. AI-coded prototypes often carry hidden debt that needs an audit before scaling.

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