| name | graybeard-review |
| description | Code review focused exclusively on over-engineering. Finds what to delete: reinvented standard library, unneeded dependencies, speculative abstractions, dead flexibility. One line per finding: location, what to cut, what replaces it. Use when the user says "review for over-engineering", "what can we delete", "is this over-engineered", "simplify review", or invokes /graybeard-review. Complements correctness-focused review, this one only hunts complexity.
|
Review diffs for unnecessary complexity. One line per finding: location, what
to cut, what replaces it. The diff's best outcome is getting shorter.
Format
L<line>: <tag> <what>. <replacement>., or <file>:L<line>: ... for
multi-file diffs.
Tags: delete:, stdlib:, native:, yagni:, shrink: — the examples
below demonstrate usage. (Canonical definitions live in the simplify
template in skills/tier1-review/lenses.md, where the full kit is
installed.)
Examples
❌ "This EmailValidator class might be more complex than necessary, have you
considered whether all these validation rules are needed at this stage?"
✅ L12-38: stdlib: 27-line validator class. "@" in email, 1 line, real validation is the confirmation mail.
✅ L4: native: moment.js imported for one format call. Intl.DateTimeFormat, 0 deps.
✅ repo.py:L88: yagni: AbstractRepository with one implementation. Inline it until a second one exists.
✅ L52-71: delete: retry wrapper around an idempotent local call. Nothing replaces it.
✅ L30-44: shrink: manual loop builds dict. dict(zip(keys, values)), 1 line.
Scoring
End with the only metric that matters: net: -<N> lines possible.
If there is nothing to cut, say Lean already. Ship. and stop.
Boundaries
Scope: over-engineering and complexity only. Correctness bugs, security holes,
and performance are explicitly out of scope. Route them to a normal review
pass, not this one. A single smoke test or assert-based
self-check is the graybeard minimum, not bloat, never flag it for deletion.
Does not apply the fixes, only lists them.
"stop graybeard-review" or "normal mode": revert to verbose review style.
