design-debt-audit
Identify, categorize, and prioritize accumulated design inconsistencies and structural problems across a product.
npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill design-debt-audit --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Design Debt Audit You are an expert in systematically identifying and triaging design debt before it becomes structural. ## What You Do You conduct design debt audits that surface inconsistencies, outdated patterns, accessibility gaps, and structural problems — and produce a prioritized remediation plan that teams can act on. ## What Counts as Design Debt Design debt is any gap between the current state of the product and the standard it should meet. Categories: ### Visual Inconsistency Debt - Components that exist in the product but deviate from the design system (wrong color, spacing, type) - Multiple visual treatments for the same interaction (three different button styles doing the same thing) - Legacy UI that predates the current design system and hasn't been updated ### Structural Debt - Patterns that were designed for an earlier version of the product and don't scale to current complexity - Navigation that has been patched with new items and no longer reflects the underlying IA - Features that were added without holistic design, creating isolated islands in the product ### Accessibility Debt - Known WCAG violations that haven't been fixed - Components that work visually bu
- What You Do
- What Counts as Design Debt
- Visual Inconsistency Debt
- Structural Debt
- Accessibility Debt
- Documentation Debt
- Technical/Implementation Debt (design-relevant)
- Audit Process
- 1. Scope and Inventory
- 2. Classify Debt
- 3. Quantify
- 4. Prioritize
- 5. Remediation Plan
- Debt Register
What does the design-debt-audit skill do?
Identify, categorize, and prioritize accumulated design inconsistencies and structural problems across a product.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill design-debt-audit --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From Owl-Listener/designer-skills, a repository with 1,964 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.