The Seven Categories of Synthetic Debt
A framework for measuring the hidden costs of AI collaboration.
Architectural Debt
Architectural debt in AI code: implicit dependencies, missing boundaries, and spaghetti structure. Learn how to maintain a clean architecture.
Read Category Details →Financial Debt
Financial debt in AI development: exploding API costs, vendor lock-in, and the hidden multiplier of maintenance. Learn the ROI of Clean Vibe.
Read Category Details →Knowledge Debt
Knowledge Debt: The gap between what code does and what the team understands. Learn to prevent comprehension gaps in AI-heavy projects.
Read Category Details →Legal/ip Debt
Legal and IP debt in AI coding: why AI-only output isn't copyrightable and how to protect your intellectual property.
Read Category Details →Operational Debt
Operational debt in AI code: silent failures, unpredictable behavior, and archaeology-style debugging. Learn to build observable AI systems.
Read Category Details →Security Debt
Security debt in AI code: 45-46% of generated code contains vulnerabilities. Learn how to secure your AI-assisted development.
Read Category Details →Team Debt
Team debt: erosion of human capability, skill atrophy, and the missing middle. Learn how AI affects engineering culture.
Read Category Details →Synthetic vs. Traditional Debt
Traditional technical debt is a conscious shortcut. You know what you did, and you know how to fix it.
Synthetic Debt is accumulated unconsciously. It is a side-effect of the speed of AI generation. Because the code "works," teams assume quality, allowing debt to compound invisibly until it hits a critical mass.
Learn more about Synthetic Debt →