Simplify
Research-first simplification of any file, skill, tool, subsystem or codebase against...
Install
npx skills add danielmiessler/LifeOS --skill Simplify -g -a claude-code -y- Repository
- danielmiessler/LifeOS19.7k
- Category
- Testing
- Updated
- 8d ago
- License
- MIT
- Context cost
- Lightabout 809 tokens
- Runs scripts
- No, instructions only
What it does
Research-first simplification of any file, skill, tool, subsystem or codebase against its ideal state: reads its ISA or derives its purpose, maps every dependent (callers, imports, references, hooks, settings, docs, tests), classifies each element with evidence as load-bearing, duplicate, dead, cruft or over-abstracted, then proposes and applies cuts that keep every behaviour a dependent relies on, proven by before-and-after parity checks. USE WHEN simplify, simplify this, simplify this system, remove cruft, remove duplication, dedupe, dead code, clean this up, this has gotten bloated, too complicated, reduce complexity, consolidate, strip this down without breaking it, what can we delete. NOT FOR always-on context files (Trim), cleanup of just the current diff (/simplify), harmony across many systems (Unify), auditing prompt rules for over-prompting (BitterLessonEngineering), bug hunting (/code-review).
Simplify
Simplify makes a target smaller and clearer without breaking anything that depends on it. A target can be a file, a skill, a tool, a subsystem or a whole repo. The work comes in three intents, each building on the record from the one before: Survey maps the target read-only, Propose ranks the cuts and holds them for a yes, and Apply lands the approved cuts with proven parity. The central rule: a cut never drops a behaviour that a dependent or ISA criterion relies on, and anything the evidence cannot explain stays. Records sit next to the target's ISA when there is one.
Ideal State
- The target ends smaller and clearer, and every behaviour a dependent or ISA criterion relies on still works, shown by the same baseline checks passing before and after.
- No element is cut on looks: each cut rests on a survey finding with its searches cited, and anything the evidence cannot explain stays.
- Nothing changes until the principal approves the specific rows, and a delete of irreplaceable content gets its own yes.
- Each stage leaves its record under
LIFEOS/MEMORY/WORK/{slug}/simplify/, so the next stage builds on evidence rather than on memory.
Intent Routing
| Intent | Trigger | File |
|---|---|---|
| Survey | "simplify X", "what can we delete", "map this before we cut", "is this dead" | Intents/Survey.md |
| Propose | "what would you cut", "propose the simplifications", follows Survey in the same run | Intents/Propose.md |
| Apply | "apply them", "y" or approved row numbers after a proposal | Intents/Apply.md |
A bare "simplify X" runs Survey and then Propose, and stops at the proposal. A Survey-only request, which is how a read-only analysis calls this skill, stops at the survey.
Data & Config
None. This skill reads no config and needs no account or key. Each stage writes its record under LIFEOS/MEMORY/WORK/{slug}/simplify/ next to the target's ISA, if it has one; nothing else is created.
