dead-code-sweep
Skill1 starsChanged 2 months agoMITView on GitHub
Repo-wide removal of code nothing calls — unused exports, unreachable branches, registered-but-never-invoked handlers, scaffolding for tech the stack doesn't run, commented-out blocks. Every removal proven with a grep. Use when asked to "remove dead code", "clean up the repo", after a big feature removal, or on a periodic tidy.
3 other projects use a version of this.
Adopted by
Most recently taken up by
- MediaPlural/agent-proventheir own version, first seen Oct 15, 2026
- ceptln/quota-burnertheir own version, first seen Sep 8, 2026
- ccpowerpack/claude-code-skillstheir own version, first seen Jul 3, 2026
Other versions3 projects use a version of this.
Word for word · 0
None found.
Edited · 0
None found.
Wrote their own version · 3
- ceptln/quota-burner★ 18same name
- MediaPlural/agent-proven★ 1same name
- ccpowerpack/claude-code-skills★ 0same name
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 repository73 other files it gives its agents.
- AGENTS.mdAGENTS.md
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- rollbackSkill
- design-endpointSkill
- design-eventSkill
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- investigate-bugSkill
- on-callSkill
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- bisectSkill
- break-couplingSkill
- deslopifySkill
- extract-moduleSkill
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- wide-renameSkill
- bullmqSkill
- kafkaSkill
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- The first 60 shown.
The file
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
1 rule. 0 are common, 1 is distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.
0
Common
Most of the 3 edited versions we read keep these.
1
Distinctive
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 29
Prove it before deleting: Every removal has a grep or a tool output showing zero references.
“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 3 edited versions of this file we could read. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.
Files
Dead-code sweep
Repo-wide and deliberate — distinct from quality/deslopify, which only
touches the current session's diff.
What counts as dead
- Unused exports — exported symbol, zero importers.
grep -rn "name" --include=…or the language tool (ts-prune,deadcodefor Go,vulturefor Python). - Unreachable branches — an
if/casethat can't be true given how the function is actually called. Trace the callers. - Registered but never invoked — an instrument, recorder, wrapper, listener,
route, or job that's wired up and never fires. Give the grep that proves it:
grep -rn "RecordServiceCall\|ServiceWrapper" pkg/ → no caller. - Scaffolding for absent tech — Kafka recorders when the stack is SQS, a dev env config when there's no dev env.
- Commented-out code — delete, git remembers.
- Dead dependencies — in the manifest, imported nowhere (
depcheck,go mod tidy). - Orphaned files — a module nothing imports, a test for deleted code.
Rules
- Prove it before deleting. Every removal has a grep or a tool output showing zero references. Paste it in the PR.
- Watch for reflection / dynamic dispatch — DI containers, decorators, string
keys, config-driven registries can "use" something
grepwon't show. Check. - Public API of a published package is not dead just because this repo doesn't call it — check downstream first.
- One PR per coherent chunk,
chore: remove dead <area>. Not one giant PR. - Latent-but-not-dead (a self-heal branch, a fallback) → leave it, it's not this skill's job.
Anti-patterns
- ❌ Deleting on "looks unused" without the grep.
- ❌ Missing a reflective/dynamic caller.
- ❌ One 2000-line deletion PR nobody can review.
- ❌ Removing a published package's exported API.
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