Chore
A routine maintenance task that supports a codebase or delivery process without directly adding a user-facing feature.
Plain English
Necessary upkeep such as updating tooling cleaning configuration or maintaining dependencies.
In context
Teams often label work as a chore when it improves maintainability operations or developer workflow while leaving intended product behavior unchanged.
Example
“Create a chore to update the lint configuration and remove the obsolete script.”
When you'll hear this
- backlog refinement
- maintenance planning
- commit messages
Common misunderstanding
A chore can still be important or risky and should not become a label for work that lacks clear value or acceptance criteria.
Also known as
maintenance choreengineering chorecodebase upkeep
Commonly used by
Related terms
Often compared with
Updated: 2026-08-31
