Agent skill

Ce Simplify Code

by EveryInc in EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin

Simplify settled, recently changed code for clarity, reuse, quality, and efficiency while preserving behavior.

MITAuto-check: warningsDevelopment

Install Ce Simplify Code

The automated check flagged lines worth reading first. See the safety section below.

skills CLI
$ npx skills add EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin --skill ce-simplify-code -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin ce-simplify-code --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/ce-simplify-code .claude/skills/ce-simplify-code && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
ce-simplify-code
GitHub stars
25k
Token cost
~1.7k tokens
SKILL.md length
947 words
Files
4 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
37
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Simplify settled, recently changed code for clarity, reuse, quality, and efficiency while preserving behavior.

  • Works in 5 steps: Identify scope → Launch 3 review agents in parallel → Fix issues → …
  • Tasks that involve Code simplification
  • SKILL.md covers Step 1: Identify scope, Step 2: Launch 3 review agents…, Step 3: Fix issues and Step 4: Verify behavior is…, plus 1 more section
  • Calls git

What it does

Ce Simplify Code is an agent skill from EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin. Simplify settled, recently changed code for clarity, reuse, quality, and efficiency while preserving behavior. Use after implementation and before review; use ce-debug for bugs.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.7k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 5 other files, including reference files (for example `references/personas/code-quality-reviewer.md`, `references/personas/code-reuse-reviewer.md` and `references/personas/efficiency-reviewer.md`).

It sits in Development, covering Code simplification. It works with Git. The repository describes itself as: Official Compound Engineering plugin for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and more. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Tasks that involve Code simplification

Example prompts

  • “/ce-simplify-code”

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Identify scope
  2. Launch 3 review agents in parallel
  3. Fix issues
  4. Verify behavior is preserved
  5. Summarize

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit cef001f. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • git

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use git, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Ce Simplify Code loads about 1.7k tokens when it runs, and up to ~2.9k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 49 tokens; SKILL.md has 947 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~49
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.7k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~2.9k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check: warnings

The automated check found patterns that need a careful read before installing.

  • WarningTells the agent its actions are pre-authorized / not to stop for confirmationSKILL.md:44
    tives and low-value findings as skipped without asking the user.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin at commit cef001f, republished under its MIT licence (© EveryInc). 947 words, ~1,671 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/ce-simplify-code/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 3 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
ce-simplify-code
description
Simplify settled, recently changed code for clarity, reuse, quality, and efficiency while preserving behavior. Use after implementation and before review; use ce-debug for bugs.
argument-hint
[blank to simplify current branch changes, or describe what to simplify]

Simplify recently changed code for clarity, reuse, quality, and efficiency while preserving exact behavior. Prioritize readable, explicit code over compact code — fewer lines is not the goal.

Step 1: Identify scope

Resolve the simplification scope in this order:

  1. User-named scope is authoritative; do not widen it.
  2. Otherwise, in git, use the current branch versus its base. Without a usable base, use staged and unstaged changes (git diff HEAD).
  3. Outside git or without a diff, use files the user named or that were edited earlier in the conversation.

If none of the above produces a non-empty scope, stop and ask the user what to simplify rather than guessing. Use the host's blocking question tool already in the current tool list (match by capability, not by a host-specific name). Presence in the current tool list is proof the tool exists; never call a user-facing question tool to discover whether it exists. If a matching tool is listed but unloaded, use the host's tool-discovery primitive to load that capability — do not search for another host's tool name. Fall back to numbered options on the host's user-visible chat surface only when no such tool is in the list or a real question call errors. Never silently skip the question.

Preflight. If the scope has no substantive human-authored code — only documentation, generated or vendored files, dependencies or lockfiles, or mechanical churn — report that there is nothing to simplify and stop without reviewers. For mixed scopes, retain only the code. This check is about the kind of change, never its size: explicit small scopes still run, and any size or cost threshold is the caller's to set.

When the platform's task-tracking capability is available, show the review, apply, and verification outcomes without creating one task per reviewer. Otherwise continue without simulating a task list in chat.

Step 2: Launch 3 review agents in parallel

Dispatch three generic subagents — code-reuse, code-quality, and efficiency reviewers — via the platform's subagent primitive (Agent/Task in Claude Code, spawn_agent in Codex) where available; otherwise run the reviews inline or serially. For each reviewer, read its prompt asset from this skill's directory and pass the full file content as the subagent's prompt, together with the resolved scope (the full diff or file set) so it has complete context:

  • references/personas/code-reuse-reviewer.md
  • references/personas/code-quality-reviewer.md
  • references/personas/efficiency-reviewer.md

Do not paraphrase these rubrics from memory. Read each file and pass it verbatim, or the reviewer loses the rules that keep the pass behavior-preserving.

Bounded dispatch. Queue the three reviewers and launch only as many as the harness accepts at once. A concurrency or active-agent-limit error means the harness is full, not that the reviewer failed: leave the reviewer queued and retry after a slot frees. When a dispatch cannot recover through active work, supported release, or a corrected invocation, run that pass inline using the same prompt asset and disclose the substitution.

Agent lifecycle. Collect terminal outcomes, including failures, before cleanup. Close or release review-owned agents when the harness provides caller-owned cleanup, before refilling slots, advancing stages, or returning. Do not message completed agents with no remaining work. Do not infer released capacity from completion or interruption, or invent cleanup operations.

Model selection. Use the platform's balanced mid-tier model for these reviewers when the current harness exposes a known override. In Claude Code this is the Sonnet class. In Codex, apply this tier only when the active dispatch primitive exposes an explicit model or custom-agent selector; task wording alone does not select a different model. Otherwise omit the override and inherit the parent model -- a working pass on the parent model beats a broken dispatch.

Permission mode. Omit the mode parameter on the dispatch call so the user's configured permission settings apply.

Show full SKILL.md (332 more words)Show less

Step 3: Fix issues

Proceed only after all three review outcomes are complete, whether returned by subagents or produced inline. Apply worthwhile findings directly; record false positives and low-value findings as skipped without asking the user.

Inspect beyond the resolved scope when needed to evaluate a finding, but edit only that scope and the import/export lines it needs. For a user-named file or directory scope, those import/export lines must also be inside it; skip any fix that would edit outside the mutation boundary.

Each fix must preserve outputs, errors, side effects, and ordering. If that cannot be established, skip it.

An interface or data shape that existed only in an earlier iteration of the current unshipped scope is not protected behavior once you verify it has no deployed, persisted, public, external, dependent-branch, or in-repo caller outside the resolved scope. Remove that compatibility path only when every required caller update fits the existing mutation boundary; otherwise preserve it.

Never simplify away a safety check. Preserve trust-boundary validation, data-loss protection, security checks, and accessibility affordances. Skip any finding that would thin or remove one.

Honor caller-passed structure pins. A plan path passed with the structure-pin constraint is context, not scope. Preserve its session-settled: Key Technical Decisions, including deliberate duplication or separation.

Step 4: Verify behavior is preserved

Run project-wide typecheck and lint. Run tests matched to blast radius: scoped tests for local changes, broader tests for shared or wide-reach changes, and the full suite when the runner cannot scope tests.

Report failures with the check name and relevant output. Fix simplification-caused failures or revert the responsible change; never relax assertions, weaken types, or skip tests.

If no test suite, lint, or typecheck is configured, state that explicitly in the summary; do not silently skip verification.

Step 5: Summarize

Summarize what was already sound and what improved. Report applied counts by reuse, quality, and efficiency; skipped count; and check outcomes. If nothing changed, say so. Do not use net lines removed as the success metric.

© EveryInc, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 3 other files (references) in skills/ce-simplify-code of EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin.

  • SKILL.md
  • references/personas/code-quality-reviewer.md
  • references/personas/code-reuse-reviewer.md
  • references/personas/efficiency-reviewer.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit cef001f

Compare with similar skills

Ce Simplify Code next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Ce Simplify Code compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Ce Simplify Code this skillEveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin25k—~1.7kAutomated safety check: WarnMIT
Reviewtisfeng/Easydict15k—~659Automated safety check: PassGPL-3.0
Disciplined Worktree Promotionnathanmcnulty/nathanmcnulty441—~2.1kAutomated safety check: PassUnlicense
Absolute Simplifymaddhruv/absolute218—~6.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Pragmatic Reviewheyitsnoah/claudesidian2.6k—~2.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Code SimplifierTwiTech-LAB/devchain101—~2kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence

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Works with

Categories

Questions about Ce Simplify Code

What does Ce Simplify Code do?

Simplify settled, recently changed code for clarity, reuse, quality, and efficiency while preserving behavior. Ce Simplify Code is an agent skill from EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin. Simplify settled, recently changed code for clarity, reuse, quality, and efficiency while preserving behavior.

When should I use Ce Simplify Code?

Ce Simplify Code fits situations like: tasks that involve Code simplification.

How do I install Ce Simplify Code in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin --skill ce-simplify-code -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/ce-simplify-code in EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin) into .claude/skills/ce-simplify-code in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Ce Simplify Code in Codex?

Run `npx skills add EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin --skill ce-simplify-code -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/ce-simplify-code in EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin) into .agents/skills/ce-simplify-code in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Ce Simplify Code in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin --skill ce-simplify-code -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/ce-simplify-code, .gemini/skills/ce-simplify-code, .github/skills/ce-simplify-code and .opencode/skills/ce-simplify-code in your project.

What does Ce Simplify Code need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Ce Simplify Code needs the command-line tools its instructions call (git).

Does Ce Simplify Code access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use git, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Ce Simplify Code safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md flagged 1 warning(s): tells the agent its actions are pre-authorized / not to stop for confirmation. Read the flagged lines before installing; the check is not a guarantee either way.

What licence does Ce Simplify Code use?

Ce Simplify Code is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Ce Simplify Code use?

About 1.7k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6.7k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 1.2k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Ce Simplify Code?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Ce Simplify Code: Review (tisfeng/Easydict, 15k stars), Disciplined Worktree Promotion (nathanmcnulty/nathanmcnulty, 441 stars), Absolute Simplify (maddhruv/absolute, 218 stars) and Pragmatic Review (heyitsnoah/claudesidian, 2.6k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Ce Simplify Code?

EveryInc (a GitHub organization) maintains it in EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin, which has 25,412 GitHub stars. The repository holds 37 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 7, 2026.

Source: EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.