Hard Cut

SkillDev tools

Lets your agent delete a feature completely, removing all its code, tests, and docs with no leftovers.

Use Hard Cut in Claude, ChatGPT or Ahel Desktop

Free. Sign in, add Hard Cut and connect your AI. About a minute.

Also: Claude Code · Cursor · Codex

Then ask your AI: use the Hard Cut skill

Details

Instructions available. Your AI can read the instructions. Execution depends on the setup they require.

Add ahel to your AI once: Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude Code or Codex. Then ask it to use this.

Hard CutStart free
About this skill

Remove a feature completely with no backward compatibility. Use when the user says "hard cut", "rip it out", "delete it", "unship", "kill this feature", or wants dead code removed instead of deprecated. Delete the surface, callers, tests, docs, comments, fallbacks, and stubs.

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by udecode/plate in .agents/skills/hard-cut/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

Use this when a feature should die, not linger.

Rules

  • Delete the surface. Do not deprecate it.
  • Do not leave throw new Error("Not implemented"), placeholder notices, "feature removed" banners, or TODOs about bringing it back unless the user explicitly asks.
  • Do not keep compatibility aliases, deprecated shims, fallback parsing, migration bridges, or dead exports.
  • Delete tests for deleted behavior. Keep tests only for the behavior that still exists.
  • Delete comments that describe deleted code or mourn the old feature.
  • If removal exposes adjacent dead code, keep cutting until the graph is clean.

Sweep

  1. Find the real surface area:
    • exports
    • commands and flags
    • routes
    • UI entrypoints
    • feature flags
    • docs and examples
  2. Trace references with rg.
  3. Delete the implementation and the glue:
    • call sites
    • types
    • state
    • tests
    • docs
    • comments
  4. Grep again for the removed name and obvious aliases.
  5. Run the narrowest honest verification for the surviving product.

Smells

  • deprecated notices
  • not-implemented throws
  • stub handlers
  • dead enum or union members
  • permanently-false feature-flag branches
  • unused env vars and config
  • tests that only prove the deleted feature used to exist

Bias

If the choice is between deleting more code and leaving a zombie seam, delete more code.

Signals

GitHub stars
17k
Forks
995
Last commit
Sep 2026
Advanced
Item type
skill
Key
hard-cut-udecode
Source
github.com/udecode/plate