Agent Skills/codebase-simplification-guide
Code Quality, Testing & SimplificationSKILL.md

codebase-simplification-guide

Architecture minimalism, dead code elimination, and abstraction reduction.

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Codebase Simplification & Maintenance Guide

This skill provides guidelines on how to keep the repository clean, avoid over-engineering, and maintain high developer velocity.

1. Branch-First Development

IMPORTANT

**CREATE A LOCAL BRANCH FIRST**: Always start by creating a local branch from `main`: ```bash git switch -c MishraShardendu22/main/<feature-name> ``` Never develop or modify code directly on `main`.

2. Core Principles

  • **No Unwanted Infrastructure**:

    • * Do not add Dockerfiles, docker-compose, Kubernetes manifests, Nginx configs, Prometheus/Grafana server setups, or Terraform scripts.

    * Everything runs on native Vercel (Next.js, Python FastAPI) and Render (Go Fiber).

  • **No Speculative Abstractions**:

    • * Do not create interfaces or wrapper layers that have only a single implementation unless required for mocking in tests.

    * Prefer straightforward, readable standard library code over heavy external frameworks.

  • **Centralized Configuration**:

    • * Never call `os.Getenv` or `process.env` in arbitrary component files.

    * All environment access must go through the dedicated central module (`backend/config`, `agentic-observatory/config`, `frontend/src/config/env.ts`).

  • **Zero Dead Code**:

    • * Remove unused functions, structs, imports, scripts, and commented-out code during every refactoring pass.

  • **Safe Database Practices**:

    • * Never drop or truncate production tables.

    * Always write idempotent migrations (`CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS`).