Cleanup

Deleting live code is a silent outage: the reference you missed was built from a string, read from a manifest, or lives in another package. "No grep hits" is the start of the proof, not the proof.

1. Prove it dead

A unit (file, export, function, route, flag, config key) is dead only when both hold, and you can show the commands:

1. Zero static references. Search the whole repo, every workspace package, by name and by path (foo, ./foo, foo.js, the kebab and camel spellings). Exclude only its own definition and its own tests.
2. No dynamic path. Search for the ways code is reached without naming it:
   • string-built imports (import(\./handlers/${x}`), require(name)`);
   • registries and maps keyed by string, decorators, reflection, DI containers;
   • config, manifests, routes files, CI/workflow files, scripts in package.json;
   • plugin or pack loaders that scan a directory;
   • exports of a published package (other repos import them; you can't grep them).

An empty search is suspect until it can fail: point the same search at a unit you know is live and see it hit ({{skill:evidence-rules}}).

2. Protected: never delete here

Public API and published exports · migrations (even applied ones) · security, auth and tenancy code · compliance and retention logic · generated code (fix the generator, or leave it) · anything cited as upgrade or verification evidence (a doc, checker or decision record names it). Raise these with the user instead.

3. Tests are not judged here

A test whose subject you delete goes with it. Whether any other test is still needed is {{skill:test-necessity}}'s call, made with probes, not here.

4. Remove

• One unit (or one tight cluster) per commit. The message cites the proof: the static search, the dynamic searches, and "not protected because …".
• Remove what the deletion orphans: helpers, fixtures, config keys, docs, the dependency in the manifest.
• Run the full gate after each commit. A red gate means the proof was wrong: revert that commit, and record what you missed.

5. Report

• Removed: unit, proof, commit.
• Kept: each unit that looked dead but was saved, with the reason (dynamic path found at file:line, protected category, cited as evidence).
• The denominator: "examined N candidates: removed R, kept K".