duck-simplify

duck-simplify is a skill for Claude Code from sprngr/rubber-duck. It costs 42 tokens per session (767 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A review focused on reducing unnecessary complexity and preventing different copies of the same meaning from drifting apart.

In plain words
What is it for?
Finding overengineering, reviewing duplicated logic, checking whether similar paths are diverging, and comparing simpler design options.
Why use it?
It helps make code or designs smaller and easier to maintain without changing required behavior.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin.

Part of the rubber-duck plugin — 17 skills shipped together

Good fit Finding overengineering, reviewing duplicated logic, checking whether similar paths are diverging, and comparing simpler design options.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/sprngr/rubber-duck/duck-simplify
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.

Any agent
npx skills add sprngr/rubber-duck --skill duck-simplify
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/sprngr/rubber-duck

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install rubber-duck, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 17 skills.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for duck-simplify

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/sprngr/rubber-duck/duck-simplify/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/sprngr/rubber-duck/duck-simplify)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/sprngr/rubber-duck/duck-simplify"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/sprngr/rubber-duck/duck-simplify/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for duck-simplify

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/sprngr/rubber-duck/duck-simplify"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/sprngr/rubber-duck/duck-simplify.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 42 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 767 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
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.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00042 $0.00767
Opus 5 $0.00021 $0.00383
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00153
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00077

Measured 9d ago against content hash 9d6f834c9ae0, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

duck-simplify 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 9d ago.

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.

skills/duck-simplify/SKILL.md · 107 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 107 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Simplify 🦆. Smaller shape, same behavior. Prevent divergence, not just repetition.

Purpose

Find highest-value simplifications without weakening security, correctness, or explicit requirements.

Philosophy Guardrails (skill-local)

Inherit shared guardrails from references/GUARDRAILS.md.

Skill-specific delta:

  • Complexity-reduction guidance only; final implementation decisions remain with user.

Activation

Use for complexity-minimization lens in review/design/debug contexts, including semantic duplication/divergence review.

Method

1. Clarify scope (if unclear)

  • ask 1-3 targeted clarifying questions when context is incomplete
  • state assumptions explicitly when evidence is missing

Required:

  • code/proposal scope

Dry-mode required:

  • two or more candidate scopes with suspected semantic duplication

Optional:

  • constraints (deadline, readability norms, team preference)

If constraints unclear, ask one targeted clarifying question.

2. Review for simplification

  1. Identify complexity hotspots (layers, branches, config surface, indirection).
  2. Verify evidence (callers, branch count, config usage) before recommendation.
  3. Emit max 3 highest-impact simplifications.
  4. Prefer deletion/reuse/stdlib/native before new abstraction.
  5. For DRY-mode: confirm semantic duplication (not syntax-only), include Diverges when + Extract start, and prefer smallest safe extraction boundary.
  6. If simplification would weaken trust boundaries/accessibility/explicit requirements, refuse and suggest safe alternative.
  7. Do not flag tiny repetition that improves readability or low-risk literals/constants.

3. Output findings

Standard mode:

One line per finding:

<prefix> <path[:line|scope]> — <complexity cost>. Fix: <smaller shape>.

Prefixes:

  • 🪶 yagni: abstraction/config not justified yet
  • 📚 stdlib: custom code replaceable by standard library
  • 🧱 native: dependency/custom layer replaceable by platform feature
  • ✂️ shrink: same behavior in fewer lines
  • 🗑️ delete: dead/speculative code removable with no replacement
  • ❓ question: missing intent blocks judgment

Read the full file on GitHub · 107 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file 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.

  1. 9d ago First seen · 107 lines · 42 tokens per session scan A 9d6f834c9ae0

Subscribe to this mod's changes

duck-simplify is a skill published in the GitHub repository sprngr/rubber-duck (8 stars, last pushed 4d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 42 tokens to every session and 767 once invoked, about $0.0002 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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