code-simplification
Simplify code that works — remove speculative abstraction, dead flexibility, and needless indirection while keeping behaviour identical and verified. Use after a feature lands ('now simplify it'), when AI-generated code arrives over-engineered, when a file has grown hard to follow, or as the cleanup pass before review. Produces a smaller, flatter version with identical behaviour, plus a ledger of what was removed and why it was safe. For finding bugs use code-review-checklist / ai-code-review — this skill assumes it works and makes it simple.
npx skills add mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills --skill code-simplification --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# 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 ## What to Hunt (in order of payoff) 1. **Speculative generality** — the interface with one implementation, the parameter always called with the same value, the config option no caller sets, the "pluggable" thing nothing plugs into. Rule: *the future that justified it must be on a roadmap, not in an imagination.* YAGNI is a removal warrant. 2. **Indirection without insulation** — layers that only forward: the wrapper that calls one function, the factory returning one type, the event fired for one listener sitting next door. Each hop costs a reader a jump; collapse hops t
- What This Skill Produces
- What to Hunt (in order of payoff)
- The Safety Discipline (what makes this different from vandalism)
- Output Format
- Simplification: [target]
- Quality Checks
- Anti-Patterns
What does the code-simplification skill do?
Simplify code that works — remove speculative abstraction, dead flexibility, and needless indirection while keeping behaviour identical and verified. Use after a feature lands ('now simplify it'), when AI-generated code arrives over-engineered, when a file has grown hard to follow, or as the cleanup pass before review. Produces a smaller, flatter version with identical behaviour, plus a ledger of what was removed and why it was safe. For finding bugs use code-review-checklist / ai-code-review — this skill assumes it works and makes it simple.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills --skill code-simplification --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills, a repository with 1,255 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.