TODO and FIXME left behind: work the agent did not finish and did not mention

Code nobody needs: one of the ways AI coding agents bloat software, from lessloc's pattern catalog. lessloc catches it as todo; it asks to finish the work, or to record known debt as shortcut: and tell the user.

What makes TODO and FIXME left behind a bad practice?

The standards that call it a bad practice: CWE-546 Suspicious Comment; Sonar S1135.

What does lessloc do about TODO and FIXME left behind?

lessloc catches it as todo; it asks to finish the work, or to record known debt as shortcut: and tell the user.

• todo (tier 3): A TODO, FIXME, HACK or XXX comment left in.

Examples

Caught as todo:

def ship(order):
    # TODO: handle international orders
    return order

Written well:

def ship(order):
    # shortcut: domestic only; add carriers when we sell abroad
    return order

Related patterns

The other patterns in Code nobody needs:

• Options, flags, parameters or config for needs nobody named: lessloc gives every session a rule against it and catches it as mode-flag.
• An interface or abstract class with one implementation: lessloc catches it as single-impl.
• Wrappers that only forward; barrel files that only re-export: lessloc catches it as wrapper.
• A new function or import that nothing calls or tests: lessloc catches it as unused (ruff adds unused variables).
• Obsolete code kept behind a guard or flag instead of deleted: lessloc gives every session the rule: delete what the change makes dead.
• Tombstones: lessloc catches it as history.
• Stubs and fake success: lessloc catches it as stub; it asks to finish the code or to tell the user what is not real yet.
• Placeholders: # ... existing code ..., "your code here": lessloc catches it as placeholder and refuses it before it lands.
• Commented-out code: lessloc catches it as commented-out and refuses it before it lands.
• Debug leftovers: lessloc catches it as debug-leftover.
• A demo __main__ block or demo folder nobody asked for: lessloc catches it as demo-code and new-folder.
• Hand-written boilerplate a language feature writes: lessloc catches it as simpler.
• A one-line helper used once: lessloc catches it as single-use.