simplify-rework
Skill14 starsChanged 5 days agoMITView on GitHub
Use when a whole codebase has grown by accretion and is to be audited or cut back, with no commit range to start from: superseded paths left behind by past shifts, unused exports and files, two implementations of one concern, or the person asks where the dead code is, to clean up the repo, or to stop it coming back. Produces a ranked audit of families, each approved family cut back through the simplify skill, and the guard. Not for the code one piece of work changed (simplify), branching complexity (complexity-rework) or an interface's shape (deepen-module).
1 other project uses a version of this.
Adopted by
Most recently taken up by
- Ovich/swarmstormword for word, first seen Nov 8, 2026
Other versions1 project uses a version of this.
Word for word · 1
- Ovich/swarmstorm★ 14100% same
Edited · 0
None found.
Wrote their own version · 0
None found.
How matches are found. Word for word: the exact same text. Edited: shares passages with this file (“99% same” means 99% of its five-word phrases also appear here; 10% or more counts). Their own version: similar meaning, or, weakest, the same name. We can’t tell which project had it first. Projects are counted among the 200 most-starred candidates, and mentions are links to the repository we found, up to 50 per site, so both counts are a floor.
In this repository34 other files it gives its agents.
- AGENTS.mdAGENTS.md
- brainstormSkill
- brainswarmSkill
- interviewSkill
- whiteboard-defenseSkill
- complexity-reworkSkill
- deepen-moduleSkill
- dependency-graphSkill
- simplifySkill
- write-diagramsSkill
- aiviewSkill
- swarm-boardSkill
- execute-planSkill
- long-horizonSkill
- orchestrate-planSkill
- guide-complexitySkill
- guide-createSkill
- guide-deepen-moduleSkill
- helpSkill
- next-stepSkill
- orchestrateSkill
- cold-readSkill
- write-planSkill
- roadmapSkill
- technical-writingSkill
- write-conventionsSkill
- pr-reviewSkill
- recurring-review-findingsSkill
- swarmSkill
- design-prototypeSkill
- point-atSkill
- validate-deliverySkill
- verification-skill-createSkill
- create-workbenchSkill
The file
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
1 rule. About 0 are common, 1 is distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.
≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈1
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
0
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Distinctive: line 31
Add no dependency without the person's yes: not an analyzer, not a CI step.
≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.
Files
Simplify rework
Detection is deterministic, deletion is narrow. An agent asked to explore for dead code spends the budget rebuilding context and finds a different set each time. Tools find, the person chooses, and each family is cut by the simplify skill, handed its files, never a mandate to look around.
The phases
One artefact each, and a stop.
| Phase | Produces | Stops for | Read |
| 1 Audit | the report: families ranked by lines saved over risk, each with its evidence and its kind (dead, superseded, duplicate) | the person's choice of families and their order | references/audit.md |
| 2 Cut | one approved family, through the simplify skill, its files and evidence as the brief | that skill's stops; a duplicate's survivor, the person's yes | |
| 3 Guard | a check that fails on new dead code, and the done-rule for the work that creates it | the person's yes on each | references/guard.md |
Where to start
| The ask | Phases |
| where is the dead code, audit, what can go | 1, then stop |
| clean up, an approved audit | 2 per family, in the approved order |
| stop this coming back | 3 |
Rules
- The audit is the context. Without it, a cut rebuilds by exploration what the audit already found.
- Add no dependency without the person's yes: not an analyzer, not a CI step.
- When the project plans its work in documents, the audit is their input and each family is one piece of work.
Red flags
| Thought | Reality |
| "Unused per the tool, so delete it" | Loads by string, public API, entry points found by convention and scripts read as unused. The audit marks each family's reach before it is proposed. |
| "I'll cut every family in one sweep" | One family per pass, or no reviewer can attribute the diff. |
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