Guide · Agent skill
How to use the Find Simplifications agent skill
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
Find Simplifications is an agent skill for the qwen-code repository that asks an AI coding agent to sweep the whole codebase for accumulated excess: dead components and files, orphaned locale keys, exports nothing consumes, and scaffolding that was added and later removed. It is aimed at qwen-code maintainers and contributors who want periodic cleanup with evidence attached. After this guide you will know what a skill is, how to install this one, how to phrase a request that triggers it, and how its issue-first workflow keeps deletions under maintainer control.
Find SimplificationsQwenLM/qwen-code · Apache-2.0 Download the skill Quick start
- 1Download the ZIP. Get the find-simplifications skill ZIP from this page and unzip it.
- 2Place the folder. Move the find-simplifications folder into ~/.claude/skills/ or into .claude/skills/ inside your project.
- 3Check requirements. Confirm git and the GitHub CLI (gh) are installed and that you have access to the qwen-code repository and its tracking issue.
- 4Ask for a survey. Request a repo-wide simplification sweep of qwen-code that files candidates on the tracking issue.
- 5Review candidates. Read each candidate's named consumers and impact on the tracking issue.
- 6Approve one candidate. Give explicit assent to a single candidate before asking the agent to land it as one pull request.
What is an agent skill and what does this one make the agent do?
An agent skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file and supporting reference documents that an AI coding agent loads when a request matches the skill's description. This skill is written as two phase documents, a survey phase and a land phase, that the agent must read before acting.
In the survey phase the agent looks across the repository for surplus code and files candidates. Every candidate names the surface, names every consumer, and says what breaks if it is removed. A candidate whose consumers cannot all be named is dropped. The run's output is a comment on a tracking issue, not a pull request.
- Dead components and files
- Orphaned locale keys
- Exports that nothing consumes
- Scaffolding that was added and then removed
Install the find-simplifications skill
Download the skill ZIP from this page and unzip it. Place the resulting find-simplifications folder in one of two locations: ~/.claude/skills/ to make it available across your projects, or a project's .claude/skills/ folder to scope it to one repository.
Alternatively, upload the ZIP in the Claude apps under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
- Personal install: ~/.claude/skills/find-simplifications
- Project install: .claude/skills/find-simplifications inside the repository
- Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP
Prepare what the skill needs
The skill requires git and the GitHub CLI (gh), used to post issue comments and open pull requests. You need access to the qwen-code repository and write access to its tracking issue. The skill references the /create-issue and /prepare-pr companion skills, so have those available as well.
The skill uses the network and does not run scripts. Its survey phase fetches the latest main branch before searching, so the agent works on current code.
- git and GitHub CLI (gh) installed
- Access to the qwen-code repository
- Write access to the tracking issue
- /create-issue and /prepare-pr companion skills
Trigger the skill with a natural request
The skill activates when your request matches its description: a periodic, repository-wide sweep for excess surface. Ask for a sweep of the whole repo, not a review of a change you just made. Requests about a diff you just wrote belong to the bundled /simplify skill, and requests about defects belong to /review.
Ask it to survey first. The default phase is survey, which files candidates and changes no source files. Only ask for a pull request after a maintainer has approved a specific candidate.
- Good: "Run a repo-wide simplification sweep of qwen-code and file candidates on the tracking issue."
- Good: "Find dead components and unused exports across qwen-code and post them for review."
- Good: "Land candidate 12, which a maintainer approved on the tracking issue."
- Not this skill: "Tidy up the function I just wrote." Use /simplify.
- Not this skill: "Find bugs in this PR." Use /review.
What to expect from a run
A survey run ends with candidate comments on the tracking issue. Each one names the surface, every consumer found, and the impact of removal. Nothing is deleted during the survey.
When a maintainer says yes to one candidate, the land phase turns that single candidate into one branch and one pull request. Merges are squash-only, so the skill keeps one candidate per PR. Assent given in conversation is recorded on the ledger before the PR is opened.
- Survey: candidates posted as issue comments, no source changes
- Land: one approved candidate, one branch named simplify/<id>, one PR
Understand the safety limits
The skill is deliberately conservative. Import reachability is not enough on its own: the skill treats the packages under packages/core/src as reachable from outside the repo, because index.ts re-exports them and the release workflow publishes several packages. Surfaces shipped in the published tarball, such as packages/core/vendor and packages/web-shell, are treated as consumed by mechanisms a grep cannot see, so they are restricted from deletion.
Where a path falls under more than one territory rule, the most restrictive outcome applies. The skill is scoped to the qwen-code repository and its publish workflow, so its rules will not transfer to other codebases unchanged.
- Never delete without a named consumer for every candidate
- Published packages and shipped surfaces are treated as externally reachable
- Candidates that cannot be fully justified are dropped
- Scoped to qwen-code; file paths and rules are specific to that codebase
Tips for getting useful results
Run the survey periodically rather than after every change, since its purpose is accumulated surplus. Keep the tracking issue as the ledger: the next run reads it to avoid re-proposing candidates that were already filed or rejected.
Review each candidate's consumer list yourself before giving assent. If a candidate cannot be named fully, the skill is designed to drop it rather than guess.
- Use the tracking issue as the single source of run history
- Approve one candidate at a time
- Read the consumer list before assenting
What people use it for
- A qwen-code maintainer runs a periodic sweep and reviews evidence-backed removal proposals on the tracking issue.
- A contributor proposes removing an orphaned locale key and gets its consumers listed before any change is made.
- A team adapting the approach to a large monorepo with published packages uses the consumer-proof rules as a checklist.
Frequently asked questions
How do I install the find-simplifications skill?
Download the skill ZIP from this page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or into .claude/skills/ inside a project. You can also upload the ZIP in the Claude apps under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
What does find-simplifications require?
It requires git and the GitHub CLI (gh), access to the qwen-code repository, and write access to its tracking issue. It also references the /create-issue and /prepare-pr companion skills. It does not run scripts but does use the network.
Does the skill delete code automatically?
No. The survey phase is read-only and only files candidates as comments on a tracking issue. A pull request is opened only for a single candidate that a maintainer has explicitly approved.
Is find-simplifications free and what is its licence?
The qwen-code repository that this skill belongs to is licensed under Apache-2.0. This page does not state any price for the skill, so check the directory listing for that.
How is this different from the bundled /simplify skill?
The bundled /simplify skill tidies the diff you just wrote and stops when there is no diff. Find Simplifications is repo-wide and looks for surplus that has accumulated over time, with no diff to anchor on.
Can I use this skill on a different codebase?
Not as written. The territory rules and file paths are specific to qwen-code and its publish workflow, though teams with large monorepos and published packages can adapt the evidence-first approach.
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Our verdict
Use this skill if you maintain qwen-code or contribute to it and want periodic, evidence-backed cleanup where a maintainer approves every deletion. Pick something else if you want to tidy code you just wrote, hunt for bugs, or work on a codebase other than qwen-code.
Download the skill