unslop-code

name

unslop-code

description

Bans AI-slop code fingerprints and reworks implementation to match problem scale. Removes narrating comments, section banners, premature factories/Managers/Utils, try/catch wallpaper, silent fallbacks, any/as-unknown-as escapes, speculative “future” APIs, hallucinated imports, and unrequested platform features. Use when the user says "unslop-code", "AI code slop", "overengineered AI code", or asks to strip Copilot/Cursor/ChatGPT-looking code patterns.

Unslop Code

AI code often compiles and looks “professional” while quietly violating YAGNI, fail-fast, and local conventions. This skill bans those fingerprints and reworks code until it matches the problem’s real scale — not a tutorial, not an enterprise scaffold. Scope is model defaults (narrating comments, AbstractFactory-for-todo, silent return [], as unknown as), not every classical maintainability smell.

Core Mandate

1. Ban fingerprints first. Do not polish over-abstracted or over-commented code in place — delete the default, then keep only what the requirement needs.
2. Match problem scale. One call path → one function. Abstract at ≥3 real variants that exist now.
3. Fail loud. No silent catch fallbacks ([], {}, null, fake defaults) unless the product explicitly requires soft degradation.
4. Types over escapes. Ban new any / as unknown as / unexplained @ts-ignore. Fix the model or narrow unknown.
5. Prefer delete. Unused params, speculative helpers, unrequested features, and narrating comments go.
6. Pivot rule. If a module hits 3+ banned patterns, redesign that unit — do not rename Managers into Managers2.

Hard Bans (never ship)

Cluster	Banned
Comments	Restating the next line; // ===== Section ===== banners; emoji in comments; JSDoc that only rephrases signatures; README-length docs on private helpers
Structure	Single-impl interfaces/abstract classes “for flexibility”; Factory/Builder/Strategy with <3 real variants; XService→XManager→XHelper→XUtils stacks; options bags for ≤2 knobs; unrequested rate limiters/webhooks/analytics/pluggable backends
Errors	try/catch around non-throwing ops; catch that only logs and continues; silent return []/{}/null in catch; null guards on non-optional typed values; duplicate handling when a boundary already handles errors
Types	: any / as any; as unknown as T; @ts-ignore / @ts-expect-error without why; ! instead of narrowing
Naming	Primary names that are only data/result/handler/manager/util(s)/helper/processor/service with no domain noun
Dead / speculative	Unused params “for later”; feature flags with no caller; leftover console.log as “logging”; hallucinated packages/APIs not in the project
Style	Multi-turn convention drift in one file (quotes, imports, naming) without aligning to the file

Full catalog: references/banned-patterns.md.

Workflow

1. Scope

• Full unslop: first-party application code (exclude generated, vendored, build output, lockfiles unless they are the target).
• Targeted unslop: named files, modules, PRs, or pattern clusters only.

State the scope. Preserve public behavior unless the user authorizes changes.

2. Audit

Grep/read for narrating comments, Manager/Utils stacks, bare catch blocks, any/as unknown as, unused exports, and invented imports. Record file, pattern id, severity.

Critical: hallucinated APIs, swallowed errors that hide failures, type escapes that lie about contracts.

Use references/review-checklist.md.

3. Lock a scale contract

Before rewriting structure:

• What the requirement actually asks for (one sentence)
• Existing project patterns to reuse (helpers, error boundaries, logging)
• Abstraction budget (default: none until ≥3 variants)
• Error strategy (propagate vs map at boundary)
• What is explicitly out of scope (features not requested)

If the contract sounds like a platform kit for a script, shrink it.

Antidotes: references/craft-antidotes.md.

4. Rework

For each banned hit:

1. Delete narrating comments, banners, speculative APIs, and unrequested features.
2. Collapse wrapper stacks into domain-named functions or the existing project pattern.
3. Propagate or map errors at the real boundary; remove silent fallbacks.
4. Replace type escapes with proper types, unknown + narrowing, or schema validation already used in the repo.
5. Align style to the file you edited.
6. Do not drive-by refactor unrelated code.

5. Verify

Re-run the checklist. Prefer the project’s existing typecheck/lint/tests for touched scope. Do not install tools without approval.

Completion Report

• Scope audited
• Fingerprints removed (by cluster)
• Scale contract (what stayed simple on purpose)
• Behavior risks / unverified areas
• Checklist status

Reference Routing

• references/banned-patterns.md — enforceable ban catalog
• references/craft-antidotes.md — scale-matching replacements
• references/review-checklist.md — audit checklist
• references/sources.md — research basis