Google measures stale TODOs steering coding agents off task
Google analyzed more than 913,000 coding-agent sessions and reports that 13% encountered inline TODO or FIXME bug references. In 6% of encounters the agent acted on the reference, 83% without a user request, adding 70% more steps, 77% more tokens and 105% more wait time after controls.
Why it matters: Repository debris is now executable context for agents. Stale tickets and comments can cause unrequested investigation or edits, so code hygiene becomes a reliability and cost control rather than only a maintenance preference.