dead-code-cleanup

Dead Code Cleanup

Overview

Systematically identifies dead, orphaned, and trivial code across the codebase including components, tests, and Storybook stories. Validates that code is truly unused before removal to prevent breaking changes. Also removes stories that provide no documentation value or only demonstrate rare edge cases.

What Qualifies as Dead/Trivial Code

Dead/Orphaned Code

• Components never imported - React components with no imports anywhere
• Unused utilities - Functions/modules with no consumers
• Orphaned tests - Tests for deleted/moved components
• Orphaned stories - Storybook stories for deleted/moved components
• Commented-out code - Code blocks that have been commented out
• Debug code - Console logs, debug flags, temporary test utilities

Trivial Tests

• Tests that always pass - Tests with no real assertions or mocked to always succeed
• Empty render tests - Tests that only verify component renders without crashing
• Pointless existence tests - Tests that check if a component is defined
• Snapshot-only tests - Tests with only snapshots and no behavior validation
• Duplicate tests - Multiple tests checking the same exact behavior
• Negative reference guards - Tests that read docs/source/CSS/config and only assert a removed string, selector, key, or literal is absent

Trivial Storybook Stories

• No-value stories - Stories that show the exact same thing as another story
• Default-only stories - Stories that only render component with no props (when default story exists)
• Edge case stories - Stories demonstrating extremely rare scenarios unlikely to occur
• Duplicate states - Multiple stories showing identical visual states
• Over-specification stories - Stories for every tiny prop variation that adds no documentation value
• Obvious behavior stories - Stories showing behavior that's self-evident from the component

Examples of trivial stories to remove:

// ❌ Trivial - just default with no props (when Default story exists)
export const Empty: Story = {
  args: {},
};

// ❌ Trivial - rare edge case nobody will encounter
export const WithExactly47Characters: Story = {
  args: {
    text: "This string has exactly forty-seven chars!",
  },
};

// ❌ Trivial - duplicate of existing state
export const LoadingState: Story = {
  args: { loading: true },
};
export const IsLoading: Story = {  // Duplicate!
  args: { loading: true },
};

// ❌ Trivial - no documentation value
export const WithPadding5: Story = {
  args: { padding: 5 },
};
export const WithPadding6: Story = {
  args: { padding: 6 },
};
export const WithPadding7: Story = {
  args: { padding: 7 },
};

// ✅ Keep - demonstrates important state
export const ErrorState: Story = {
  args: {
    error: "Failed to load data",
    onRetry: fn(),
  },
};

// ✅ Keep - shows important variant
export const WithLongContent: Story = {
  args: {
    children: "Very long content that tests text wrapping...",
  },
};