Architecture simplification

Skill yeaight7/agent-powerups/skills/architecture-simplification

Use when a codebase carries over-engineered abstractions, unnecessary layers, or redundant logic that should be collapsed without changing behavior.From its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add yeaight7/agent-powerups --skill architecture-simplification

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

2 things to look at

6 stars6 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.
runs commandsInstructs the agent to run 2 commands, including `grep -rn "implements IUserRepository" src/` and 1 more.

SKILL.md

2.5 KB, 490 tokens by cl100k_base, as published. Nobody here has run it

Purpose

Over time, codebases accumulate "just in case" abstractions. This skill guides the safe removal of unnecessary complexity: remove the noise around the core logic without changing the core logic itself.

When to Use

An interface has only one implementation and no second one is planned
A wrapper, factory, or layer only passes arguments straight through
Two code paths do the same thing and should be consolidated

Inputs

The suspect abstraction(s) and their call sites
A green test suite covering the affected area

Workflow

Identify the abstraction cost. Does this interface have only one implementation? Does this wrapper class just pass arguments straight through? Measure before cutting:
```
grep -rn "implements IUserRepository" src/    # count implementations
grep -rn "IUserRepository" src/ | wc -l       # count references
```
Run the tests first. The affected area must be green before any removal — this is the behavioral baseline.
Inline the logic. Move the logic from the unnecessary abstraction directly into the caller.
Delete the dead code. Remove the interface, wrapper, or factory that is no longer needed.
Test verification. Re-run the same tests; the observable behavior of the system must not have changed.

Example: if a UserRepository implements IUserRepository but there is only ever one database, inline UserRepository and delete IUserRepository.

Output

The simplified code with the abstraction removed
Before/after test evidence showing unchanged behavior

Verification

Tests covering the area were green before the change (baseline)
Same tests green after the change — observable behavior preserved
No references to the removed abstraction remain (searched, not assumed)
Diff contains only removal/inlining — no core-logic rewrites

Failure Modes

Rewrite disguised as simplification — do not rewrite the entire subsystem; simplification removes the noise around the core logic, not the logic itself.
Cutting without a baseline — without a green pre-change test run, "tests pass after" proves nothing.
Speculative retention — keeping the interface "in case we need it later" recreates the original problem.

What ships with it

Read from the repository

Just SKILL.md. No reference files, no scripts.

Gives 0 of the 12 instructions most architecture codebase skills give in 490 tokens

Counted across 858 of the 1,304 authors here whose files we hold, read 2026-09-06

Apply the deletion test to identify shallow modulesin 32 of 858, across 31 files
Read domain glossary and ADRs before exploringin 22 of 858, across 19 files
Use Tailwind and Mermaid via CDN for reportsin 21 of 858, across 18 files
Document architecture decision recordsin 20 of 858, across 12 files
Offer to record ADRs for rejected candidatesin 17 of 858, across 14 files
Limit primary navigation to four to seven itemsin 17 of 858, across 7 files
Write HTML report to the system temp directoryin 17 of 858, across 14 files
Read product marketing context before asking questionsin 16 of 858, across 6 files
Use Mermaid graph TD for visual sitemapsin 15 of 858, across 5 files
Ensure every page has at least one internal linkin 15 of 858, across 5 files
Use ASCII tree format for page hierarchy draftsin 15 of 858, across 5 files
Enforce lowercase URLs with hyphensin 15 of 858, across 5 files

Said here and by no other author read

verify tests are green before starting
identify if interfaces have only one implementation
inline logic from abstractions into callers
delete unused interfaces and wrappers
search for remaining references to removed code

Grouped from the skills themselves: near-identical wordings counted once, and counted by distinct author, so one author publishing three of these counts once. Length counted with cl100k_base; the agent that loads this file may tokenize it differently.