Code Simplification Skill

Code accretes defensive complexity: abstractions for futures that never came, options nobody passes, indirection that once had a reason. AI-generated code arrives pre-accreted — interfaces with one implementer, config objects with nine unused knobs. Simplification is its own pass with its own rule: behaviour identical, verified; complexity removed, listed.

What This Skill Produces

• The simplified code — smaller, flatter, same behaviour
• A removal ledger: each simplification, why it was safe, and what future it forecloses (honestly)
• Verification evidence that behaviour held

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• The code — what works today and should keep working
• The pressure — what made it feel complex: onboarding, a bug, a review comment
• What must not change — the public API, behaviour, or performance envelope
• Test coverage — whether there are tests to prove the simplification is safe

What to Hunt (in order of payoff)