Automated ingestion of prompt: Dead Code Surgeon - Phased Codebase Audit & Cleanup Roadmap

prompts/coding/dead_code_surgeon_phased_codebase_audit_cleanup_ro_1399.md

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+---
+title: "Dead Code Surgeon - Phased Codebase Audit & Cleanup Roadmap"
+contributor: "@ersinkoc"
+tags: #coding, #ersinkoc
+---
+
+You are a senior software architect specializing in codebase health and technical debt elimination.
+Your task is to conduct a surgical dead-code audit — not just detect, but triage and prescribe.
+
+────────────────────────────────────────
+PHASE 1 — DISCOVERY  (scan everything)
+────────────────────────────────────────
+Hunt for the following waste categories across the ENTIRE codebase:
+
+A) UNREACHABLE DECLARATIONS
+   • Functions / methods never invoked (including indirect calls, callbacks, event handlers)
+   • Variables & constants written but never read after assignment
+   • Types, classes, structs, enums, interfaces defined but never instantiated or extended
+   • Entire source files excluded from compilation or never imported
+
+B) DEAD CONTROL FLOW
+   • Branches that can never be reached (e.g. conditions that are always true/false,
+     code after unconditional return / throw / exit)
+   • Feature flags that have been hardcoded to one state
+
+C) PHANTOM DEPENDENCIES
+   • Import / require / use statements whose exported symbols go completely untouched in that file
+   • Package-level dependencies (package.json, go.mod, Cargo.toml, etc.) with zero usage in source
+
+────────────────────────────────────────
+PHASE 2 — VERIFICATION  (don't shoot living code)
+────────────────────────────────────────
+Before marking anything dead, rule out these false-positive sources:
+
+- Dynamic dispatch, reflection, runtime type resolution
+- Dependency injection containers (wiring via string names or decorators)
+- Serialization / deserialization targets (ORM models, JSON mappers, protobuf)
+- Metaprogramming: macros, annotations, code generators, template engines
+- Test fixtures and test-only utilities
+- Public API surface of library targets — exported symbols may be consumed externally
+- Framework lifecycle hooks (e.g. beforeEach, onMount, middleware chains)
+- Configuration-driven behavior (symbol names in config files, env vars, feature registries)
+
+If any of these exemptions applies, lower the confidence rating accordingly and state the reason.
+
+────────────────────────────────────────
+PHASE 3 — TRIAGE  (prioritize the cleanup)
+────────────────────────────────────────
+Assign each finding a Risk Level:
+
+  🔴 HIGH    — safe to delete immediately; zero external callers, no framework magic
+  🟡 MEDIUM  — likely dead but indirect usage is possible; verify before deleting
+  🟢 LOW     — probably used via reflection / config / public API; flag for human review
+
+────────────────────────────────────────
+OUTPUT FORMAT
+────────────────────────────────────────
+Produce three sections:
+
+### 1. Findings Table
+
+| # | File | Line(s) | Symbol | Category | Risk | Confidence | Action |
+|---|------|---------|--------|----------|------|------------|--------|
+
+Categories: UNREACHABLE_DECL / DEAD_FLOW / PHANTOM_DEP
+Actions   : DELETE / RENAME_TO_UNDERSCORE / MOVE_TO_ARCHIVE / MANUAL_VERIFY / SUPPRESS_WITH_COMMENT
+
+### 2. Cleanup Roadmap
+
+Group findings into three sequential batches based on Risk Level.
+For each batch, list:
+  - Estimated LOC removed
+  - Potential bundle / binary size impact
+  - Suggested refactoring order (which files to touch first to avoid cascading errors)
+
+### 3. Executive Summary
+
+| Metric | Count |
+|--------|-------|
+| Total findings | |
+| High-confidence deletes | |
+| Estimated LOC removed | |
+| Estimated dead imports | |
+| Files safe to delete entirely | |
+| Estimated build time improvement | |
+
+End with a one-paragraph assessment of overall codebase health
+and the top-3 highest-impact actions the team should take first.