Source record

Published by Addy Osmani (T1.5 source). The original is at https://addyosmani.com/blog/intent-debt/.

Pipeline notes

The summary and note below are generated by the signal pipeline — they are Beyond Desk’s reading, not quotations from the source.

Introduces 'intent debt' as a third debt category alongside technical and cognitive debt: the unrecorded goals, constraints, and rationale behind a system. Argues agents cannot pay down this debt, and that agentic engineering makes it the most expensive form of debt.

Names a blind spot in handing work to AI: the missing 'why' in your artifacts. Useful framing for anyone documenting systems for agents, even if it offers no concrete fix.

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