Prompt Shake

Tree-shaking for prompts. Every line is guilty until proven load-bearing. The goal is the leanest prompt that still covers 100% of needed cases — minimal-that-covers beats maximal.

Purpose

• Strip bloat from system prompts, skill files, and instruction docs so they cover 100% of needed cases in the fewest lines.
• Subtraction, not redesign.

Targets it hunts

• Over-explanation the model already knows by default
• Duplicate instructions (same rule stated N ways/places)
• Subset/mutually-inclusive rules (one rule already implies another)
• Redundant never-fires branches / dead edge cases
• Vague filler that adds tokens but not behavior

The proofs