What is dead-code-removal?

A workflow for removing unused Go code, deprecated HTTP handlers, unused modules, and orphaned symbols. It uses supervisor, executor, and blind-reviewer roles, plus scripts that check the result.

Use it when cleaning dead code from a Go project, reviewing proposed deletions, and running the included validation checks.

It reduces the risk of deleting code that is still needed or leaving related dead code behind. Review gates and build, vet, and tidy checks provide evidence before completion.

dead-code-removal — Skill by ConnieHan2019

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods

npx agentmods add skills/conniehan2019/code-removal-skill/dead-code-removal

Any agent

npx skills add ConnieHan2019/code-removal-skill --skill dead-code-removal

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ConnieHan2019/code-removal-skill

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Or install dead-code-removal, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 1 skill.

Per session 119 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.

When invoked 8,068 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.

Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.

Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.

Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5	$0.00119	$0.08068
Opus 5	$0.00060	$0.04034
Sonnet 5	$0.00024	$0.01614
Haiku 4.5	$0.00012	$0.00807

Measured 3d ago against content hash 65aeb7a1cf11, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

dead-code-removal scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 3d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 4 executable files (scripts/build-check.sh, scripts/module-gone-check.sh, scripts/tidy-check.sh, …), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

plugins/dead-code-removal/skills/dead-code-removal/SKILL.md · 629 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 629 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Dead Code Removal Skill

version: 0.1.0 status: open-source release (methodology mature; packaging new) language toolchain: Go (scripts/*.sh); methodology is language-agnostic — swap the scripts to support another language.

🚨 Top-Level Non-Negotiable Rules (read first — violations cause repeated permission prompts)

If you run this skill inside a permission-gated agent (e.g. Claude Code), violating any of these forces a permission prompt on nearly every command.

Don't prefix the validation scripts with env vars
- ❌ GOCACHE=... GOFLAGS=-mod=mod scripts/build-check.sh ./...
- ✅ scripts/build-check.sh ./...
- Why: an env-var prefix creates a new command prefix that is not on your allowlist → a fresh prompt every time. If your environment needs fixed cache/proxy locations, export them once in your shell profile, or edit the script defaults — never prefix at the call site.
Don't add decorative pipes (| head, | tail, | tee)
- ❌ scripts/build-check.sh ./... 2>&1 | tail -5
- ✅ scripts/build-check.sh ./... (output is short; if long, truncate with your editor/Read tooling)
- Why: a composite command re-matches the allowlist; tail/head may not be allowed, so the whole pipeline prompts.
Don't edit source code with Bash
- ❌ sed -i ... / awk > tmp && mv tmp file / head -n X file > new && tail >> new && cp new file
- ✅ Use your editor / file-edit tooling
- Why: Bash-edited source can't be diffed cleanly and easily trips sandbox write permissions.
Don't dress up an unverified risk as a decision for the user
- Before escalating to a human, pass the 3 gates in §Supervisor Mode → Escalation Gate (fact closure / technical closure / decision residue).

If you violate 1–3, re-read this section and switch to the prescribed form — don't power through and trigger the prompt.

Goal

Given a deprecated entry point (HTTP handler) or a module directory, automatically find and remove every downstream dependency that is referenced only by the dead code — so the removal is both correct and complete in a single pass.

Read the full file on GitHub · 629 lines

Files

What ships with it

39 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

3d ago First seen · 629 lines · 119 tokens per session scan A 65aeb7a1cf11

Subscribe to this mod's changes

dead-code-removal is a skill published in the GitHub repository ConnieHan2019/code-removal-skill (5 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 119 tokens to every session and 8,068 once invoked, about $0.0006 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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