brycewang-stanford/auto-empirical-research-skills/code-simplifier

Code Simplifier

Clean up and simplify code after making changes.

When to Use

Run this skill after completing a feature or fix to ensure the code is clean, readable, and maintainable.

Simplification Goals

Reduce Complexity

• Break long functions into smaller, focused ones
• Reduce nesting depth (max 3 levels)
• Simplify complex conditionals
• Extract magic numbers to named constants

Improve Readability

• Use descriptive variable and function names
• Add clarifying comments for non-obvious logic
• Ensure consistent formatting
• Remove unnecessary comments

Apply Pythonic Patterns

• Use list/dict/set comprehensions where appropriate
• Use with statements for resource management
• Use enumerate() instead of manual indexing
• Use zip() for parallel iteration
• Use f-strings for formatting
• Use pathlib for file paths

Clean Up

• Remove unused imports
• Remove unused variables
• Remove commented-out code
• Remove redundant code paths
• Consolidate duplicate logic

Workflow

1. Identify Changed Files

• Focus on files modified in the current session
• Or specify files/directories as arguments

1. Analyze Each File

• Check for simplification opportunities
• Prioritize high-impact improvements

1. Apply Simplifications

• Make incremental changes
• Preserve original behavior
• Run tests after each change

1. Format and Lint

• Run ruff format .
• Run ruff check --fix .

1. Verify

• Run tests: pytest
• Ensure behavior unchanged

Arguments

Optionally specify files or directories to simplify.

Usage:

• /code-simplifier - Simplify recently changed files
• /code-simplifier src/module.py - Simplify specific file
• /code-simplifier src/ - Simplify entire directory

Example Transformations

Before:

result = []
for i in range(len(items)):
    if items[i].is_valid == True:
        result.append(items[i].value)

After:

result = [item.value for item in items if item.is_valid]

Before:

if x != None:
    if y != None:
        if z != None:
            process(x, y, z)

After:

if all(v is not None for v in (x, y, z)):
    process(x, y, z)