---
name: Defect Triage
description: Decide what to fix, defer, or reject.
---
# Defect Triage

Not every bug gets fixed — there isn't time, and many aren't worth it. Triage is the deliberate sorting: what to fix now, defer, or reject.

## Sort by
- **Severity.** How bad: crash/data-loss > functional > cosmetic.
- **Priority.** How soon: blocking release > annoying > nice-to-have.
- **Frequency.** Affects every user vs rare edge case.
- **Risk of fix.** A fix in fragile code may introduce worse bugs; sometimes the defect is the safer state.

## Decisions
- **Fix now** — high severity, release-blocking.
- **Defer** — real but not now; backlog with a target release.
- **Reject** — by design, duplicate, not reproducible, or cost exceeds value.

## Discipline
A bug left open forever is debt that clutters the tracker. Close decisively with a reason.