Deprecation and migration

Deprecation and Migration

Overview

Code is a liability, not an asset. Every line of code has ongoing maintenance cost — bugs to fix, dependencies to update, security patches to apply, and new engineers to onboard. Deprecation is the discipline of removing code that no longer earns its keep, and migration is the process of moving users safely from the old to the new.

Most engineering organizations are good at building things. Few are good at removing them. This skill addresses that gap.

When to Use

• Replacing an old system, API, or library with a new one
• Sunsetting a feature that's no longer needed
• Consolidating duplicate implementations
• Removing dead code that nobody owns but everybody depends on
• Planning the lifecycle of a new system (deprecation planning starts at design time)
• Deciding whether to maintain a legacy system or invest in migration

Inputs

This skill is conditional — it runs only when a deprecation, sunset, or migration is actually in scope. It consumes, in order of preference:

• The sunset decision — from docs/features/<slug>/prd.md (the Implementation Decisions or Out of Scope section naming the old system AND its replacement), or an explicit user request to remove/migrate something.
• The codebase as-is — research.md if a research pass exists, otherwise a direct dependency/usage scan to inventory every consumer and touchpoint of the system being deprecated.
• Live usage signals — metrics, logs, or dependency analysis that quantify current usage. This is what lets you size the migration and later prove zero-usage before removal.

Refuse to run (fail-closed) if either holds:

• No production-proven replacement exists. Don't deprecate without an alternative (see The Deprecation Decision Q3 and Step 1) — build the replacement first, then return here.
• Current usage was never measured. Removing or hard-deprecating blind is a Red Flag; gather the usage signal first, then proceed.

Core Principles

Code Is a Liability

Every line of code has ongoing cost: it needs tests, documentation, security patches, dependency updates, and mental overhead for anyone working nearby. The value of code is the functionality it provides, not the code itself. When the same functionality can be provided with less code, less complexity, or better abstractions — the old code should go.

Hyrum's Law Makes Removal Hard

With enough users, every observable behavior becomes depended on — including bugs, timing quirks, and undocumented side effects. This is why deprecation requires active migration, not just announcement. Users can't "just switch" when they depend on behaviors the replacement doesn't replicate.

Deprecation Planning Starts at Design Time

When building something new, ask: "How would we remove this in 3 years?" Systems designed with clean interfaces, feature flags, and minimal surface area are easier to deprecate than systems that leak implementation details everywhere.

The Deprecation Decision

Before deprecating anything, answer these questions:

1. Does this system still provide unique value?
   → If yes, maintain it. If no, proceed.

2. How many users/consumers depend on it?
   → Quantify the migration scope.

3. Does a replacement exist?
   → If no, build the replacement first. Don't deprecate without an alternative.

4. What's the migration cost for each consumer?
   → If trivially automated, do it. If manual and high-effort, weigh against maintenance cost.

5. What's the ongoing maintenance cost of NOT deprecating?
   → Security risk, engineer time, opportunity cost of complexity.

Compulsory vs Advisory Deprecation

Type	When to Use	Mechanism
Advisory	Migration is optional, old system is stable	Warnings, documentation, nudges. Users migrate on their own timeline.
Compulsory	Old system has security issues, blocks progress, or maintenance cost is unsustainable	Hard deadline. Old system will be removed by date X. Provide migration tooling.

Default to advisory. Use compulsory only when the maintenance cost or risk justifies forcing migration. Compulsory deprecation requires providing migration tooling, documentation, and support — you can't just announce a deadline.

The Migration Process

Step 1: Build the Replacement

Don't deprecate without a working alternative. The replacement must:

• Cover all critical use cases of the old system
• Have documentation and migration guides
• Be proven in production (not just "theoretically better")

Step 2: Announce and Document

## Deprecation Notice: OldService

**Status:** Deprecated as of 2025-03-01
**Replacement:** NewService (see migration guide below)
**Removal date:** Advisory — no hard deadline yet
**Reason:** OldService requires manual scaling and lacks observability.
            NewService handles both automatically.

### Migration Guide
1. Replace `import { client } from 'old-service'` with `import { client } from 'new-service'`
2. Update configuration (see examples below)
3. Run the migration verification script: `npx migrate-check`

Step 3: Migrate Incrementally

Migrate consumers one at a time, not all at once. For each consumer:

1. Identify all touchpoints with the deprecated system
2. Update to use the replacement
3. Verify behavior matches (tests, integration checks)
4. Remove references to the old system
5. Confirm no regressions

The Churn Rule: If you own the infrastructure being deprecated, you are responsible for migrating your users — or providing backward-compatible updates that require no migration. Don't announce deprecation and leave users to figure it out.

Step 4: Remove the Old System

Only after all consumers have migrated:

1. Verify zero active usage (metrics, logs, dependency analysis)
2. Remove the code
3. Remove associated tests, documentation, and configuration
4. Remove the deprecation notices
5. Celebrate — removing code is an achievement

Migration Patterns

Strangler Pattern

Run old and new systems in parallel. Route traffic incrementally from old to new. When the old system handles 0% of traffic, remove it.

Phase 1: New system handles 0%, old handles 100%
Phase 2: New system handles 10% (canary)
Phase 3: New system handles 50%
Phase 4: New system handles 100%, old system idle
Phase 5: Remove old system

Adapter Pattern

Create an adapter that translates calls from the old interface to the new implementation. Consumers keep using the old interface while you migrate the backend.

// Adapter: old interface, new implementation
class LegacyTaskService implements OldTaskAPI {
  constructor(private newService: NewTaskService) {}

  // Old method signature, delegates to new implementation
  getTask(id: number): OldTask {
    const task = this.newService.findById(String(id));
    return this.toOldFormat(task);
  }
}

Feature Flag Migration

Use feature flags to switch consumers from old to new system one at a time:

function getTaskService(userId: string): TaskService {
  if (featureFlags.isEnabled('new-task-service', { userId })) {
    return new NewTaskService();
  }
  return new LegacyTaskService();
}

Zombie Code

Zombie code is code that nobody owns but everybody depends on. It's not actively maintained, has no clear owner, and accumulates security vulnerabilities and compatibility issues. Signs:

• No commits in 6+ months but active consumers exist
• No assigned maintainer or team
• Failing tests that nobody fixes
• Dependencies with known vulnerabilities that nobody updates
• Documentation that references systems that no longer exist

Response: Either assign an owner and maintain it properly, or deprecate it with a concrete migration plan. Zombie code cannot stay in limbo — it either gets investment or removal.

Common Rationalizations

Rationalization	Reality
"It still works, why remove it?"	Working code that nobody maintains accumulates security debt and complexity. Maintenance cost grows silently.
"Someone might need it later"	If it's needed later, it can be rebuilt. Keeping unused code "just in case" costs more than rebuilding.
"The migration is too expensive"	Compare migration cost to ongoing maintenance cost over 2-3 years. Migration is usually cheaper long-term.
"We'll deprecate it after we finish the new system"	Deprecation planning starts at design time. By the time the new system is done, you'll have new priorities. Plan now.
"Users will migrate on their own"	They won't. Provide tooling, documentation, and incentives — or do the migration yourself (the Churn Rule).
"We can maintain both systems indefinitely"	Two systems doing the same thing is double the maintenance, testing, documentation, and onboarding cost.

Red Flags

• Deprecated systems with no replacement available
• Deprecation announcements with no migration tooling or documentation
• "Soft" deprecation that's been advisory for years with no progress
• Zombie code with no owner and active consumers
• New features added to a deprecated system (invest in the replacement instead)
• Deprecation without measuring current usage
• Removing code without verifying zero active consumers

Verification

After completing a deprecation:

• Replacement is production-proven and covers all critical use cases
• Migration guide exists with concrete steps and examples
• All active consumers have been migrated (verified by metrics/logs)
• Old code, tests, documentation, and configuration are fully removed
• No references to the deprecated system remain in the codebase
• Deprecation notices are removed (they served their purpose)

Outputs & handoff contract

Emits the migration artifact at docs/features/<slug>/migration.md. Stable sections a downstream consumer (and a resuming agent) may depend on — rename one → update its referrers in the same commit:

• Deprecation Notice — Status · Replacement · Removal date (advisory or a hard date) · Reason. Records the advisory-vs-compulsory classification from this skill's table.
• Migration Guide — concrete, copy-pasteable steps + examples for moving a consumer off the old system.
• Migration Ledger — one row per consumer: touchpoints · migrated? · verified (tests/metrics). The ledger is the source of truth for "all consumers migrated."
• Removal Checklist — the ## Verification boxes: zero active usage proven · code/tests/docs/config removed · no lingering references · deprecation notices removed.

STATE.md update: a migration that spans real code changes is registered as its own PRD-namespaced slice rows on the board (state impl → verify → review → ship → done, gate: agent); it stays building until the Removal Checklist passes. Because deprecation is conditional, no rows appear unless a sunset is triggered. The actual removal/replacement commits hand off to git-workflow (atomic, secret-clean) and pull-request (design-anchored PR referencing this migration.md and any superseding ADR). Do not mark the slice done until the Migration Ledger shows every consumer migrated-and-verified and the Removal Checklist is fully green — partial removal that leaves orphaned consumers is a failure, not a ship.