Landmines (Architectural) — In software delivery, a landmine is a latent architectural risk captured on a decision record before it detonates — a known-fragile assumption, shortcut, or coupling that is safe today but likely to cause an incident when a future change disturbs it.
Every codebase carries risks that aren't bugs yet: a hard-coded assumption that will break at scale, a shortcut taken under deadline, a coupling nobody meant to create. They sit quietly until a change steps on them. Naming and recording these as landmines turns invisible risk into a tracked, reviewable list.
Landmines are most valuable in AI-native delivery, where agents generate change quickly and can trip a latent risk without knowing it's there. Flagging landmines on architecture decision records gives both humans and agents a heads-up before they touch fragile ground.
Skaftor lets teams flag Landmines on decision records inside blueprints, so the risk travels with the architecture and surfaces during review and blast-radius analysis.
Tech debt is a broad term for suboptimal code you plan to improve. A landmine is a specific, recorded latent risk that is safe now but likely to cause an incident when a future change disturbs it — a sharper, more actionable flag than general debt.
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Last updated July 28, 2026 · https://skaftor.com/glossary/landmines