| name | code-simplification |
| description | Simplify the current candidate diff for clarity while preserving behavior, scope, tests, errors, side effects, and project conventions. |
Code Simplification
Owns: focused simplification of recently changed code. It does not select tickets, expand
scope, review acceptance, produce QA/audit artifacts, commit, push, open PRs, or finalize
workflow state.
Inputs
Require the changed diff, allowed paths, semantic invariants, project conventions, and
checks that currently pass. If the candidate is not GREEN, return without editing.
Volatile intake bound
max_volatile_bytes: 103232 normalized UTF-8 bytes per invocation. This is the
observed 96,393-byte candidate-diff high-water mark plus the 2,380-byte ticket-body and
4,459-byte implementation-handoff maxima. The corpus is the run's TK-01/TK-02/TK-05/
TK-07/TK-08 normalized git diff --no-ext-diff --no-color observations, its nine ticket
bodies, and compact leaf results.max_single_output_bytes: 32596, the observed TK-02 executable-code candidate diff.
Count every diff, file slice, pasted handoff, evidence body, and tool result after CRLF or
lone-CR normalization to LF. Read the manifest first; truncate command output before it
enters context and slice larger diffs by file or hunk. Prefer path plus SHA-256 references over
pasted artifacts, and count an artifact only when its content is required. If the next
required read would exceed either cap, stop before reading or editing and return the exact
remaining references with budget-exhausted; a later invocation may continue. The bound
never permits omitting preservation duties or claiming equivalence without evidence.
Contract
Preserve:
- externally observable behavior and public contracts;
- errors, validation order, side effects, retries, and persistence semantics;
- security and data-integrity boundaries;
- ticket scope and unrelated user changes;
- tests and project conventions.
Process
- Read the changed code in context and identify concrete duplication, unnecessary
indirection, confusing names, or locally avoidable branching.
- Prefer the smallest edit that makes intent obvious. Do not introduce speculative
abstractions, broad formatting churn, compatibility shims, or architectural rewrites.
- After each coherent edit, run the narrowest relevant checks. Revert the simplification
if behavior cannot be shown equivalent.
- Return changed paths, simplifications made, checks observed, and residual limits.
Never claim equivalence or passing checks without observed evidence. Any edit creates a
new CandidateRef and invalidates prior review/QA/audit evidence owned by the caller.
