January 13, 2026
Tick, tick… here comes the backlog
Show HN: DebtBomb – Make TODOs expire and automatically create Jira tickets
App makes TODOs self‑destruct and file tickets — hero or havoc?
TLDR: DebtBomb makes TODO notes expire and can open tracking tickets when they do. Commenters split between loving the forced cleanup and warning it will just break builds or shove clutter into Jira, with requests for a snooze button and reminders that tech debt is mostly a team process problem.
Hacker News lit up like a countdown clock after the launch of DebtBomb, a tool that turns TODO notes in code into ticking timers — when the date passes, it “explodes,” breaking the build (the automated checks before code goes live) and, yes, promises to auto‑open a Jira task. The pitch: stop letting “temporary hacks” live forever. The features: a warning mode, reports, and a GitHub repo that scans for special “@debtbomb” comments.
Then the comments went nuclear. One camp cheered accountability; the other yelled calendar chaos. The anti‑TODO crowd came in hot: “use tasks instead,” said one, arguing the to‑do list belongs in Jira (the workplace task tracker), not buried in code. Pragmatists begged for a snooze button—a one‑tap grace period for emergencies. Others insisted not all TODOs are bad, saying some “temporary” code is fine long‑term. The most dramatic take: a veteran warned this will just break builds, make everyone mad, and lead to… extensions. Meanwhile, the comedian’s corner roasted the premise: “from one dark corner to another; filling up the jira backlog.” The vibe? A split between “make it hurt so we fix it” and “you’re just moving mess from code to tickets,” with memes about setting expire=2099 and the new office villain: the calendar.
Key Points
- •DebtBomb scans @debtbomb comments in code and fails CI builds when specified expiration dates pass.
- •Installation is available via go install; source builds use git clone and go build with PATH setup guidance for macOS, Linux, and Windows.
- •Usage supports hard enforcement (check) and a warning mode (--warn-in-days) to flag upcoming expirations without failing builds.
- •Reporting features include listing all debt bombs, expired-only, and JSON-formatted outputs for custom tooling.
- •Configuration uses .debtbombignore and automatic exclusions for common dependency, build, VCS, tooling, and large/binary files; the project is MIT-licensed.