absolute-debt

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Absolute Debt

Pay down accumulated lint and type-checker debt across the repo — existing warnings, errors, and suppressions that built up over time — in safe waves, by rule, with tests green after each. The goal is a genuinely clean lint + typecheck, not a quieter one.

Runs the shared engine in references/health-engine.md — read it for the DETECT → SCAN → TRIAGE → FIX → VERIFY → REPORT loop and the safety contract. This file covers only what's specific to lint/type debt.

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When to use

• "Fix our lint warnings", "clean up the type errors", "get the codebase to strict mode".
• Tightening config (enable a rule, raise tsconfig strictness) and clearing the fallout.
• Burning down accumulated eslint-disable / @ts-ignore / # type: ignore suppressions.

debt vs simplify: simplify improves your working diff's quality. debt clears pre-existing repo-wide lint/type violations on green main. Use debt for standing cleanup, not for changes you're actively making.

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What it scans

Ecosystem	Lint debt	Type debt
JS/TS	eslint . (full report, by rule)	tsc --noEmit
Python	ruff check / flake8	mypy / pyright
Go	golangci-lint run	go vet ./..., staticcheck

Also inventory suppressions as debt in their own right: eslint-disable*, @ts-ignore/@ts-expect-error, # type: ignore, # noqa, //nolint. Each is a hidden violation. Count violations grouped by rule (not by file) — that's how you wave them.

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Risk ranking (TRIAGE)

Wave	Class	Default
1	autofixable lint (eslint --fix, ruff --fix, gofmt)	fix now — mechanical, safe
2	manual lint by rule, low behavioral risk (unused, style, imports)	fix this pass, one rule at a time
3	type errors, and lint rules that can change behavior if "fixed" wrong	gated — review each, may need real logic
4	removing suppressions (@ts-ignore etc.)	gated — each may surface a real bug

Fix one rule across the repo per wave, not one file across all rules — keeps diffs reviewable and regressions bisectable. Config tightening (enable rule / raise strictness) is itself a finding: propose it, then clear what it surfaces.

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Fix & verify

• Run the autofixers first (wave 1), commit-ready, then re-scan to see what's truly manual.
• Manual fixes: address the cause, not the symptom. A type error means the types are wrong somewhere — fix the type, don't cast to any/add # type: ignore.
• Never clear a violation by suppressing it. Removing suppressions is the goal, not a tool.
• After each wave: full test + lint + typecheck + build. The violation count must drop and nothing regress.

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Gotchas

1. Fixing by suppressing. @ts-ignore to clear a type error adds debt. Forbidden here.
2. any / cast to win. Silences the checker, keeps the bug. Fix the real type.
3. One-file-all-rules waves. Mixes concerns, unreviewable. Go one-rule-all-files.
4. Autofix without review. --fix can change behavior (e.g. prefer-const on a reassigned var via a bug). Run tests after autofix too.
5. Disabling the rule instead of fixing. Loosening config to hit zero is debt laundering, not paydown.

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Companion commands

• /absolute simplify — quality of code you're currently changing.
• /absolute prune — many unused-var/import warnings vanish once dead code is pruned.
• /absolute work — if clearing the debt needs real refactoring, hand off.