simplify

Simplify

This is an expanded profile of code-simplification that adds multi-agent parallel review. For the canonical simplification workflow, see skills/code-simplification/SKILL.md.

Workflow

1. Identify recently changed files via git diff --stat
2. Spawn three parallel review agents:

Agent	Focus	Finds
Code Reuse	Duplication	Repeated logic, extractable functions, copy-paste patterns
Quality	Complexity	Dead code, poor naming, deep nesting, missing error handling
Efficiency	Performance	Redundant allocations, unnecessary iterations, missing caches

3. Aggregate findings: deduplicate, sort by impact (bugs > performance > readability > style)
4. Apply fixes one at a time, verifying after each
5. Report confidence (0.0-1.0)

Focus Areas

Pass a focus argument to weight the matching agent higher:

• memory efficiency
• readability
• reducing duplication
• performance
• error handling

What NOT to Simplify

• Intentional complexity
• Performance-critical paths without benchmarking
• Public APIs without a migration plan
• Test code (clarity over brevity)
• Generated code

See Also

• code-simplification — Canonical simplification skill
• code-review-and-quality — Multi-axis code review
• text-cleanup — AI verbosity removal (different from code simplification)

Anti-Rationalization Table

Excuse	Counter
"The multi-agent review is overkill for small changes"	Small changes can hide duplication and inefficiency. Parallel review catches what single review misses.
"I'll skip the efficiency agent, readability is enough"	Performance regressions creep in silently. The efficiency agent catches them before they compound.
"Aggregating findings takes too long"	Unaggregated findings lead to conflicting fixes. Deduplicate and prioritize before applying.
"I'll simplify test code too"	Test code prioritizes clarity over brevity. Do not simplify tests for the sake of fewer lines.
"The confidence score is just a number"	Confidence scores flag areas that need human review. Low confidence means "look closer."