The Intent Debt

This article introduces the concept of 'intent debt' within the Triple Debt Model by Margaret-Anne Storey, alongside technical and cognitive debt. Intent debt refers to the missing or eroded documentation of goals, constraints, and rationale behind system design decisions. Unlike technical debt (fixable via refactoring) and cognitive debt (addressable through AI explanations), intent debt requires human input to externalize reasoning. The piece argues that as AI agents accelerate code generation, intent debt becomes more costly because agents cannot infer true intent from code alone. It emphasizes the need for teams to explicitly document design rationale to maintain software health and prevent system drift.