Deslop

Deslop

Clean AI patterns, excessive defensiveness, and unnecessary bloat out of code and git diffs before committing.

While /unslop cleans human/agent prose and /no-comments strips comments before review, /deslop operates directly on application code and diffs.

Process

1. Inspect the diff. Run git diff against your base branch or HEAD~1. Focus on newly added or modified lines.
2. Scan for code slop patterns (see checklist below).
3. Refactor and simplify. Delete defensive bloat, eliminate speculative layers, and restore direct, obvious code.
4. Verify correctness. Run tests, typechecks, or linters to prove the streamlined code still works.

Code Slop Patterns to Detect and Fix

1. Defensive Over-Engineering

• Redundant null/undefined checks: Checking variables that internal types or preceding guards guarantee cannot be null. Trust internal invariants; concentrate validation at external boundaries (principle-boundary-discipline).
• Try-catch swallows: Wrapping synchronous or infallible calls in try...catch blocks that swallow errors or return fallback values silently.
• Speculative error handling: Catching errors that cannot happen in normal flow rather than letting real failures surface (principle-fix-root-causes).

2. Speculative Flexibility

• Unrequested configuration: Adding options objects, configurable flags, or generalized plugin systems for single-use logic (principle-laziness-protocol).
• One-caller abstractions: Creating helper functions, interfaces, or wrapper classes used in exactly one place with no likelihood of reuse (principle-minimize-reader-load).
• Premature type parameterization: Introducing complex generic type parameters where concrete types suffice.

3. Narrating and Placeholder Comments

• Obvious narration: // check if user exists, // return the result, // loop through items. Delete them immediately.
• Section banner comments: // ===================== HELPERS =====================. Remove them.
• Commented-out code: Dead code blocks left "just in case". Delete them; git history preserves past code (principle-subtract-before-you-add).

4. Artificial AI Code Tells

• Intermediate variable churn: Assigning a value to a temporary variable only to immediately return or pass it once:

  // Slop
  const result = calculateTotal(items);
  return result;
  
  // Clean
  return calculateTotal(items);
  

• Redundant type assertions: Overusing as any, as unknown as T, or unnecessary non-null assertions ! when proper typing or narrowing makes the code type-safe (principle-type-system-discipline).
• Verbose conditional boilerplate: Using 10-line if/else ladders where a simple ternary, dictionary lookup, or early return is cleaner.

5. Lingering Debug and Scratch Artifacts

• Leftover console.log, print(), dbg!(), or ad-hoc benchmark timers.
• Temporary test fixtures or scratch files committed by mistake.

Output / Reply

State:

• Files cleaned and line delta (e.g. -45 lines).
• Types of slop removed (e.g., redundant null guards, one-caller helper collapsed, narrating comments stripped).
• Verification command run to confirm tests and types remain green.