New: 98,000+ skills indexed from GitHub repos with 100+ stars · every skill safety-checkedBrowse top skillsTop skills
Esc to closeBrowse all skills
Submit a skillBrowse skills
Submit a skillBrowse skills

Agent skill

Principle Subtract Before You Add

by Sma1lboy in Sma1lboy/rove

Apply when sequencing an addition, refactor, or rewrite. An agent skill from Sma1lboy/rove.

MITAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install Principle Subtract Before You Add

skills CLI
$ npx skills add Sma1lboy/rove --skill principle-subtract-before-you-add -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install Sma1lboy/rove principle-subtract-before-you-add --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/Sma1lboy/rove.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.agents/skills/pstack/skills/principle-subtract-before-you-add .claude/skills/principle-subtract-before-you-add && 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
principle-subtract-before-you-add
GitHub stars
168
Used in
3 other repos
Token cost
~338 tokens
SKILL.md length
155 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
13
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Apply when sequencing an addition, refactor, or rewrite. An agent skill from Sma1lboy/rove.

  • Development work in your project
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Principle Subtract Before You Add is an agent skill from Sma1lboy/rove. Apply when sequencing an addition, refactor, or rewrite. Remove dead weight, redundant validators, and stub references first, then build on the simpler base.

Its SKILL.md is about 340 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Development. The repository describes itself as: Rove — the agent multiplexer for your terminal. Run coding agents on parallel tasks with isolated worktrees and persistent sessions. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Development work in your project

Example prompts

  • “/principle-subtract-before-you-add”

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 6b3ec31. 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

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

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

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    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

Principle Subtract Before You Add loads about 338 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 48 tokens; SKILL.md has 155 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~48
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~338

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 passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

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 Sma1lboy/rove at commit 6b3ec31, republished under its MIT licence (© Sma1lboy). 155 words, ~338 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/principle-subtract-before-you-add/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
principle-subtract-before-you-add
description
Apply when sequencing an addition, refactor, or rewrite. Remove dead weight, redundant validators, and stub references first, then build on the simpler base.
metadata.internal
true
metadata.upstream
pstack

Subtract Before You Add

When evolving a system, remove complexity first, then build. Deletion gives you a simpler base, which makes the next addition smaller and less brittle.

Why: Adding to a complex system compounds complexity. Removing first cuts the surface area, reveals the essential structure, and usually makes the next design obvious. Default to subtraction.

Make simplification a continual investment. Leave the design slightly simpler and more capable behind the same or smaller surface than you found it.

The pattern:

  • Sequence removal before construction
  • Cut before you polish (get to the minimum before investing in quality)
  • Design for observed usage, not speculative edge cases
  • No speculative validators, parsers, or guards beyond what the spec demands
  • Out-of-spec features drag validators behind them. Persistence, retry-on-startup, and schema migration each need guards to defend their inputs.
  • Simplify prompts (remove redundant instructions, excessive templates)
  • When a reference has no novel content, delete it rather than leaving a stub

© Sma1lboy, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in .agents/skills/pstack/skills/principle-subtract-before-you-add of Sma1lboy/rove.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 6b3ec31

Used in 3 other repositories

We found 3 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 3 other GitHub owners. This page covers the copy in Sma1lboy/rove, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

Principle Subtract Before You Add 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.

Principle Subtract Before You Add compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Principle Subtract Before You Add this skillSma1lboy/rove1683 repos~338Automated safety check: PassMIT
Trellis Session Insightmindfold-ai/Trellis15k4 repos~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassAGPL-3.0
Warp Factory Fileswarpdotdev/warp65k1 repos~2.5kAutomated safety check: PassAGPL-3.0
Migrate Core Code to Submodulestinyhumansai/openhuman42k—~2.6kAutomated safety check: PassGPL-3.0
Analyze Logsactivepieces/activepieces25k1 repos~1.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
GitHub Review Iterationprisma/orm48k—~2.2kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0

Similar skills

  • Trellis Session Insight

    mindfold-ai/Trellis

    Reach into past AI conversation history through the trellis mem CLI.

    15k GitHub starsUsed in 4 repos~1.7k tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

  • Warp Factory Files

    warpdotdev/warp

    Authors and edits file-based Warp software factory definitions rooted at factory.yaml, covering agents, automations, scorers and webhooks, and validates them before a pull request.

    65k GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~2.5k tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

  • Migrate Core Code to Submodules

    tinyhumansai/openhuman

    Plans and carries out moving non-host-specific code and its tests from the OpenHuman core into vendored tiny submodule libraries, then releases the submodule and re-pins the host.

    42k GitHub stars~2.6k tokensUpdated today
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

  • Analyze Logs

    activepieces/activepieces

    Analyze application logs from the .evlog/logs/ directory. An agent skill from activepieces/activepieces.

    25k GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~1.6k tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

  • GitHub Review Iteration

    prisma/orm

    Official

    Runs a loop on a GitHub pull request: fetch review state, triage comments into actions, implement them and resolve threads, repeating until nothing actionable is left.

    48k GitHub stars~2.2k tokensUpdated yesterday
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

  • Release

    PrefectHQ/fastmcp

    Cut a FastMCP release end to end. An agent skill from PrefectHQ/fastmcp.

    28k GitHub stars~2.9k tokensUpdated yesterday
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

More from Sma1lboy/rove

All 13 skills in this repo

  • Image Gen

    Sma1lboy/rove

    Generate a single image from a text prompt using the MiniMax image generation API.

    171 GitHub stars~927 tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed

  • Hyperframes Design

    Sma1lboy/rove

    Non-animation creative direction for HyperFrames videos. An agent skill from Sma1lboy/rove.

    171 GitHub stars~1.2k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed

  • Changelog Generator

    Sma1lboy/rove

    Draft Rove release notes as Changesets. An agent skill from Sma1lboy/rove.

    171 GitHub stars~1.5k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed

  • File Issue

    Sma1lboy/rove

    Turn a rough idea, a bug, or a batch of unsolved problems into well-structured GitHub issue(s) and file them with gh, auto-classifying type + labels from the content (recommend, then confirm) and…

    171 GitHub stars~2.4k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed

  • Rove

    Sma1lboy/rove

    A skill your agent uses when controlling Rove tasks, parallel coding attempts, hosted agent sessions, task lifecycle, or the daemon-owned issue tracker from a shell.

    171 GitHub stars~8.9k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed

  • Unslop

    Sma1lboy/rove

    Strip AI writing tells from Rove's user-facing prose — README, the docs/ pages that sync to docs.rove.run, landing copy, and release notes.

    171 GitHub stars~1.3k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed

Categories

Questions about Principle Subtract Before You Add

What does Principle Subtract Before You Add do?

Apply when sequencing an addition, refactor, or rewrite. An agent skill from Sma1lboy/rove. Principle Subtract Before You Add is an agent skill from Sma1lboy/rove. Apply when sequencing an addition, refactor, or rewrite.

When should I use Principle Subtract Before You Add?

Principle Subtract Before You Add fits situations like: development work in your project.

How do I install Principle Subtract Before You Add in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add Sma1lboy/rove --skill principle-subtract-before-you-add -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.agents/skills/pstack/skills/principle-subtract-before-you-add in Sma1lboy/rove) into .claude/skills/principle-subtract-before-you-add in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Principle Subtract Before You Add in Codex?

Run `npx skills add Sma1lboy/rove --skill principle-subtract-before-you-add -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.agents/skills/pstack/skills/principle-subtract-before-you-add in Sma1lboy/rove) into .agents/skills/principle-subtract-before-you-add in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Principle Subtract Before You Add 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 Sma1lboy/rove --skill principle-subtract-before-you-add -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/principle-subtract-before-you-add, .gemini/skills/principle-subtract-before-you-add, .github/skills/principle-subtract-before-you-add and .opencode/skills/principle-subtract-before-you-add in your project.

What does Principle Subtract Before You Add need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Principle Subtract Before You Add is instructions for the agent only.

Does Principle Subtract Before You Add access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Principle Subtract Before You Add safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Principle Subtract Before You Add use?

Principle Subtract Before You Add 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 Principle Subtract Before You Add use?

About 338 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 1.4k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Principle Subtract Before You Add?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Principle Subtract Before You Add: Trellis Session Insight (mindfold-ai/Trellis, 15k stars), Warp Factory Files (warpdotdev/warp, 65k stars), Migrate Core Code to Submodules (tinyhumansai/openhuman, 42k stars) and Analyze Logs (activepieces/activepieces, 25k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Principle Subtract Before You Add?

Sma1lboy (a GitHub user) maintains it in Sma1lboy/rove, which has 168 GitHub stars. The repository holds 13 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 10, 2026.

Source: Sma1lboy/rove on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.