Simplify Codebase

Reduce the number of concepts and obligations a codebase must keep coherent. Line-count reduction is supporting evidence, not the objective. A successful run may conclude that the inspected surface is already justified.

Select mode and scope

First choose the authority mode:

• Survey for simplification audit, investigation, or candidate-finding requests. Remain read-only and return ranked evidence.
• Change for explicit simplify, remove, consolidate, refactor, or repository-documentation edit requests. Prove each cut, implement it within the authorized scope, and validate the surviving contract.

Then choose the coverage scope:

• Focused when the user names a subsystem, symbol, state machine, dependency, or suspected duplication. Cover that boundary thoroughly before expanding outward.
• Broad when the request spans the repository or asks for multiple candidates. Partition the system and account for every in-scope domain.

Deleting a reachable capability, supported interface, stored representation, or compatibility path is a product decision. Describe the consequence and obtain direction unless the user has already chosen it.

Establish the contract

1. Read the repository's instructions, architecture and decision records, manifests, test guidance, and generated-file conventions.
2. Inspect version-control state and preserve unrelated work. Identify vendored, generated, migration, fixture, and public-package surfaces before classifying them.
3. Trace the runtime path from entrypoints through configuration, registration, dispatch, persistence, processes, and wire boundaries. Record public, dynamic, persisted, generated, and compatibility-sensitive contracts.
4. In Change mode, discover the repository's real verification commands and capture a proportional baseline when feasible. A failing baseline narrows what the final checks can prove.