Anti-Entropy

Overview

Use this skill when the task is not merely "change code" but "remove old paths safely without growing entropy".

This skill chooses between:

• delete-first for internal code retirement
• compat-exception for proven external dependency boundaries
• confirmation-first for irreversible state or an external contract whose distributed consumers cannot be observed

It does not replace brainstorming, writing-plans, systematic-debugging, or verification-before-completion. It is a narrow governance owner for retirement, fallback collapse, duplicate-owner cleanup, and deletion safety.

When to Use

Use when any of these are true:

• old logic, duplicate owners, or stale fallbacks should be retired
• a candidate fix is "delete old path" vs "add another fallback"
• internal keyword / phrase / trigger logic is being replaced by structured logic
• a new canonical owner exists and the old owner may still carry real behavior
• a cleanup, migration, or deprecation task touches schema, persistence, source-of-truth, or external compatibility boundaries
• the task risks confusing code retirement with live data deletion

Do not use for:

• pure additive feature work with no retirement decision
• tiny wording edits
• simple status or read-only Q&A
• normal bug fixes that do not involve owner collapse, fallback cleanup, or deletion choice

Auto-Compose Boundary

This skill should be composed by other owners. It should not become a new global hot-path entry.

Prefer composition from:

• brainstorming for approach selection involving retirement or persistence risk
• writing-plans for plans that delete old paths or touch schema / migration / persistence
• systematic-debugging when the tempting fix is fallback growth or delete-vs-retain
• verification-before-completion for cleanup / retirement / compatibility / migration closeout