simplify is agent-read markdown (skill) from ronaknnathani/relay: Reduce complexity in recently changed code — cut needless abstraction, dead code, and duplication; improve names and structure — WITHOUT changing behavior. Quality only; it does not hunt for bugs (use review for that). Use after implementing a chunk of work, before review, or whenever a diff feels more complicated than the problem it solves. Triggers on "clean this up" / "tidy this" / "refactor this" when code already exists; for an underspecified goal with no code yet, use `clarify`..
Indexed from public GitHub and served as immutable, content-addressed versions. Install it pinned to an exact SHA-256 with the mdr CLI, and every file is verified against the hash recorded here before it reaches your agent. The deterministic audit below grades the latest version, and the same file always earns the same grade.
What the file says
# Simplify
Make a change simpler and clearer without changing what it does. The bar: readable, explicit code over
clever, compact code — would a senior engineer call this overcomplicated? Scope is the **recently
changed code** — the working diff (e.g. `git diff` against the branch point) unless the caller names
files. This is quality-only: it does not hunt for bugs (that's `review`).
## Step 0 — the invariant
**Preserve functionality. Never change what the code does, only how it does it.** Every original
feature, output, and behavior stays intact. If a simplification would alter behavior, it is a `review`
or implementation concern, not a simplification — stop and surface it.
## Scan — three buckets
Look at the changed code for:
- **Structural** — nesting depth ≥ 3, functions longer than ~50 lines, nested ternaries, boolean-flag
parameters that select behavior, indirection that only forwards a call.
- **Naming** — `data`/`result`/`temp`/`foo`, names that mislead, names that imply something broader or
different than the thing actually is.
- **Redundancy** — duplicated logic, dead/unreachable code, unused parameters/variables/fields,
…
Pin to a label to follow the author's releases, or to a sha256 to freeze the exact bytes forever. Either way the resolved hash is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install reproduces it on any machine.
A 17 of 17 checks passed. Deterministic, no model, same answer every run.
pass: Frontmatter block present
pass: Frontmatter declares a name
pass: Frontmatter declares a description
pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (5588 bytes)
pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
pass: No credential-shaped string
pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
pass: No text hidden with inline styles
pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
pass: No link to a raw IP address
pass: No script tag
Source
GitHub
ronaknnathani/relay · 3 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-09-24 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_nemqa5fbjxlj5trj
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=ronaknnathani/relay/simplify
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/02a7cf27a149d87a017fce4e548fc62181d2f52030704fb22780224251ceafd6
Your agent does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.
ronaknnathani/relay · skills/build-write-like-me/SKILL.md · Use this skill whenever the user wants to capture, clone, or codify their own (or someone's) writing voice into a…
ronaknnathani/relay · skills/clarify/SKILL.md · Turn a vague or underspecified task into a crisp requirements + testable acceptance-criteria document by closing the…
ronaknnathani/relay · skills/commit/SKILL.md · Create a single well-formed git commit from the working changes, following the repo's AGENTS.md and recent…
ronaknnathani/relay · skills/deliver-pr/SKILL.md · Deliver one change end to end as a single pull request — clarify → plan → implement → simplify → review → validate →…
ronaknnathani/relay · skills/explore/SKILL.md · Build a verified, read-only understanding of a codebase or a slice of it — entry points, code flow, architecture…
ronaknnathani/relay · skills/implement/SKILL.md · Execute an implementation plan (from `plan`) task by task, writing the code and tests and leaving the system green at…
ronaknnathani/relay · skills/open-pr/SKILL.md · Stage, commit, push, and open a pull request following the author's repository and AGENTS.md conventions — repo-style…
ronaknnathani/relay · skills/plan/SKILL.md · Turn a clarified requirements artifact into a concrete, executable implementation plan — a decisive architecture…
ronaknnathani/relay · skills/pr-fix/SKILL.md · Bring a PR to mergeable — fix CI failures, address review comments, and resolve merge conflicts. Runs either from a…
ronaknnathani/relay · skills/pr-monitor/SKILL.md · Handle one pull request attention event end to end — read the watcher digest, triage it, delegate the fixing to pr-fix…
ronaknnathani/relay · skills/relay-archive/SKILL.md · Use when a project's PR is merged and you want to clean up the worktree while preserving notes and plans
fcakyon/claude-codex-settings · plugins/simplify/skills/simplify/SKILL.md · This skill should be used when the user asks to "simplify", "clean up the diff", "run simplify", "simplify the…
genai-io/san · .san/personas/software-engineer/skills/simplify/SKILL.md · Review changed code for reuse, quality, and efficiency, then clean up what you find — duplicated logic that could reuse…
maquina-app/rails-claude-code · rails-simplifier/skills/simplify/SKILL.md · Simplifies and refines Ruby on Rails code following 37signals patterns and the One Person Framework philosophy, while…
outlinedriven/odin-claude-plugin · plugins/odin-code/skills/simplify/SKILL.md · Use when the user says "simplify this diff" or asks for a compression pass over a change-set. Not for dead-code sweeps…
