housekeep-backlog — Living register of parked work

Degree of freedom: MIXED. Discovery scan [LOW freedom — run exactly]. Classification, dedup, priority [HIGH freedom].

Apply-now for the register only. You do not implement backlog items here. Every plan- skill creates* parked work; this is the collector. The failure mode is not making the inventory — it goes stale within a month and nobody can tell if debt is shrinking. So this is docs-adr for parked work: regenerate, diff against the last run, keep stable IDs.

Prefer docs/BACKLOG.md. Use a root BACKLOG.md only if the host already has one.

This skill vs neighbors

How to reason (every candidate)

1. Locate — file:line or doc path; form (TODO / parked phase / skip /

open finding / flag)

1. Interpret — what actual work is it? A bare // TODO: fix is itself

a finding — tag needs-triage, do not drop it

1. Classify — tech-debt / unfinished-feature / deferred-plan-phase /

test-gap / known-bug / decision-needed

1. Status — still-relevant / verify-done / stale-or-obsolete

Skipping Interpret produces a register of context-free TODOs nobody can action.

Worked example

Locate: docs/plans/auth-refactor.md — phases 1–2 checked, 3–4
unchecked; last commit 4 months ago.
Interpret: phase 3 is refresh-token rotation; phase 4 is audit
follow-ups parked mid-plan.
Classify: deferred-plan-phase (two items).
Status: ph3 still-relevant; ph4 — audit-auth-flows has since run,
so verify-done before carrying it.
Rows:
BL-014 | deferred-phase | auth-refactor ph3: refresh rotation | relevant | high | docs/plans/auth-refactor.md
BL-015 | deferred-phase | auth-refactor ph4: audit follow-ups | verify-done | med | docs/plans/auth-refactor.md

Phase 1 — Discover every source [LOW freedom — run all]

Miss none. Use workspace Grep/rg (not unbounded find). Load any existing BACKLOG.md first — this run is a regeneration + diff.

• Code markers — TODO|FIXME|HACK|XXX|WIP|@todo|@deprecated with

surrounding context; git blame when the age matters

• Plan/burndown docs — docs/, plans/, plan-*.md,

.cursor/*-state.md: unchecked - [ ], "Phase N", "out of scope", MATCH/DONE leftovers

• Closure deferrals — complete-everything / burndown-full /

completion-judge recorded as deferred, blocked, or out-of-scope

• Disabled tests — .skip / .todo / xit / xdescribe /

@Ignore / pytest.mark.skip

• Open audit findings — leftover audit- / plan- reports not

yet burned down

• Commented-out blocks and flags gating unfinished features →

workflow-feature-flag for flag debt

• Tracker linkage — which items have tickets vs code-only

(untracked = highest risk of being lost)

Phase 2 — Deduplicate [HIGH freedom]

One real piece of work = one register row, even when a TODO, a plan phase, and a deferral all describe it. Keep every source reference on that row.

Phase 3 — Classify, status, prioritize [HIGH freedom]

• Status: relevant / verify-done (check before carrying) / stale

(propose removal — do not auto-delete)

• Priority: impact × effort as a signal, not a fake score. Security,

data-loss, and auth items are high regardless of effort

• Owner/context enough that a future session can act. No context →

needs-triage, not a guess

Phase 4 — Write the register [LOW freedom on format]

• Header — last-regenerated date, counts by class and status, delta

vs last run (new / closed / newly-stale)

• Index — id | class | title | status | priority | source(s) | ticket?
• Stable IDs — BL-NNN, never reused. Closed items move to

Recently closed (history is how you see debt shrinking)

• Agent hook — point agent rules at the register: read it before a

sprint/plan; new parked work adds a BL- row in the same PR. enhance-agent-guardrails installs that wording

Phase 5 — Keep it alive

Re-run diffs: gone markers → closed; new markers → new BL-; unchanged rows keep ID and history. A scheduled pass fits workflow-housekeep. High-priority items hand off to complete-everything / burndown-full. Flag debt → workflow-feature-flag. Decisions-needed → docs-adr.

Self-critique before writing [LOW freedom — do not skip]

1. Sources complete — every Phase-1 class was searched
2. Deduped — one work item, one BL-, all sources listed
3. Actionable or tagged — context-free rows are needs-triage, not dropped
4. Inventory only — no implementation of backlog items this pass
5. Diff honest — first run says so; later runs report new / closed / newly-stale
6. IDs stable — no reuse; closed rows stay in Recently closed

Definition of Done

• All Phase-1 sources scanned; existing register loaded and diffed
• Every item Locate→Interpret→Classify→Status
• Duplicates merged; security/data/auth flagged high
• BACKLOG.md written with stable IDs, counts, delta, Recently closed
• Same-PR / agent-rule hook recorded
• Stale items proposed, not auto-deleted
• High-priority handoffs named; items not implemented here

Output format

1. Summary — totals by class and status; delta vs last run
2. BACKLOG.md — index + Recently closed
3. Newly discovered — the left-behind catch
4. Verify-done / stale — await confirmation
5. Handoffs — high → complete-everything / burndown-full; flags →

workflow-feature-flag; decisions → docs-adr