robertoatila Dead Code Elimination
Identify, verify, and safely prune dead code, unreferenced exports, orphan files, and unused package dependencies. Prevents false-positive deletion by requiring compilation and test verification at every step.
Safety Invariants (Read Before Deleting Anything)
- Test Suite Green First: Never start dead code elimination while the test suite is failing.
- Dynamic Reflection Awareness: Check for dynamic imports (
import(),require(), reflection, dependency injection containers) before declaring an export dead. - Atomic Commits per Batch: Delete in small, cohesive groups (one commit per module or package) with descriptive commit messages.
- Verification Gate: After every removal, run full type-check and unit tests. If tests fail, immediately revert (
git checkout -- <file>).
Detection Strategy
- Unused Exports: Run ecosystem analyzers (
knip,ts-prune,cargo-udeps,flake8/vulture). - Orphan Assets & Configs: Scan for unreferenced CSS, JSON, and template assets.
- Obsolete Dependencies: Identify packages declared in manifests but never imported across the codebase.
Execution Procedure
# Step 1: Baseline verification
npm test && npm run build
# Step 2: Identify candidate unused exports
npx knip --reporter json > .evidence/deadcode-candidates.json
# Step 3: Remove candidate batch, then re-verify
git commit -m "refactor(cleanup): eliminate unused module X"