Sword

Sword

Commit to the close-range cut that removes the problem cleanly.

What This Skill Does

Use Sword for decisive edits, cuts, or removals when you are close enough to the code or document to strike precisely. In this chip pack, Sword is treated as a metaphorical battle-chip procedure with a shipping-now delivery profile. Canonical reference input: Sword. Hermes shelf: Direct Fire and Breach.

When To Use

• A redundant block, branch, or layer should be removed rather than worked around.
• The best move is a crisp local refactor, not a long-range speculative change.
• You can inspect the exact surface before cutting.

Prerequisites

• These procedures rely on the normal tools already present in the active Hermes runtime; this repo does not ship a separate integration layer.

Operator Inputs

• Point to the exact block, branch, function, paragraph, or rule that should be cut.
• Describe why removal or reduction is better than wrapping or working around it.
• Name any adjacent behavior that must remain intact after the cut.
• State how collateral should be checked after the strike.

Procedure

1. Restate the target, success condition, and no-touch boundaries before you spend the chip.
2. Collect the operator inputs below so the chip lands on the right panel.
3. Close distance by reading the local context around the target.
4. Cut the minimum surface needed to restore clarity or correctness.
5. Check that the strike did not nick nearby behavior.
6. Package the result with concrete evidence, what stayed untouched, and the next recommended chip only if follow-up is truly needed.

Deliverables

• A local deletion, reduction, or simplification patch.
• A note about what was intentionally left untouched.

Output Contract

• One precise local cut, deletion, or simplification.
• A short explanation of what was removed and why it was safe to remove.
• A note on what was intentionally left untouched nearby.
• Verification that surrounding behavior still holds after the cut.

Do Not Use For

• Poorly understood targets or distant root causes that have not been traced yet.
• Large sweeping edits where one local cut is clearly not enough.
• Ownership or terrain problems that need room control first.

Pair With

• After Sword, switch to Cannon when only one small direct follow-up remains.
• After Sword, switch to Area Grab when the local cut exposed that cramped operating room is the real constraint.
• After Sword, switch to Air Shot when the target should be redirected, not cut further.

Pitfalls / Guardrails

• Keep the metaphor anchored to a real operator move instead of drifting into lore.
• Do not use Sword when the target is poorly understood.
• If the fix needs routing or room control first, switch chips.
• Keep the chip metaphor anchored to a real operating move; do not let flavor substitute for procedure.

Verification

• Check that the response includes every promised deliverable and leaves an inspectable audit trail.
• Check that confirmed facts, assumptions, and proposed follow-up are visibly separated.
• Confirm Hermes inspected local context before removing anything.
• Confirm the cut solved the stated problem instead of only shrinking the surface.
• Confirm nearby behavior, references, or wording were not accidentally nicked.
• Check that the metaphor still maps cleanly to a real operator mechanism.

Example Invocation

Use Sword on this handler: remove the dead fallback branch, keep the happy path intact, and verify nothing else in the function changed behavior.
Use Sword to delete the obsolete feature-flag path and confirm callers still pass.