Skill: Finalize Changes and Commit (Cleanup, Deduplication, Hardcoded Audit)

Type: Execution

Purpose

Finalize current changes for production readiness.

Tasks:

• Remove duplicate logic
• Eliminate unnecessary code
• Audit and resolve hardcoded values
• Verify current branch and dirty working tree match the intended task
• Ensure consistency and build integrity
• Prepare structured commits
• Force an explicit cleanup decision after push, PR creation, or PR merge

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When to Use

• Before committing finalized work to a shared branch
• Before submitting a pull request for review
• After completing a refactoring session that touched multiple files
• When preparing a clean commit history from messy working changes
• When continuing work after another session may have used the same repository

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When NOT to Use

• Work-in-progress code that is still actively being developed
• Trivial single-line fixes (typo, formatting) that need no audit
• Initial prototyping or exploratory coding phases
• Changes already reviewed and approved through another skill

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Inputs Required

Do not run this skill without:

• Working tree with uncommitted or staged changes
• Access to project build, lint, and test commands
• Knowledge of project commit conventions (if any)

Optional but recommended:

• Target branch context (e.g., main, release)
• List of intended change scope (files or modules)
• Current task intent or expected branch/worktree name

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Output Format

1. Issues Found
2. Branch Context Verdict
3. Actions Taken
4. Verification Results
5. Commit Plan
6. Final Commit Messages
7. Post-Publish Cleanup Decision

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Procedure

Gate -1 – Branch Context Check

Run branch-context-check before validating the working set. If that skill is not installed, run the check inline: inspect git status --short --branch, git branch --show-current, git log --oneline --decorate -5, and the staged/dirty file lists, then classify the branch/worktree against the current task intent using the same four verdicts below.

Required outcome:

• Current task intent is summarized.
• Current branch, upstream state, recent commits, staged files, and dirty files are inspected.
• Branch/worktree verdict is one of match, ambiguous, mismatch, or blocked.

Proceed to Gate 0 only when:

• Verdict is match, or
• Verdict is ambiguous and the user explicitly confirms the branch/worktree is correct for the current task.

Stop before staging or committing when:

• Verdict is mismatch or blocked.
• Staged files include changes outside the current task.
• Dirty files from a previous session overlap with current-session files.

In a stopped state, recommend a concrete recovery path: create/switch to a task-appropriate branch, create a separate worktree from the correct base, or finish/commit the previous-session work first. Do not move, stash, reset, or discard changes without explicit user approval.

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Gate 0 – Working Set Validation

CRITICAL: The working tree may contain changes from other agent sessions or manual edits. This gate must isolate only the current session's changes without disturbing anything else.

Step 0-1: Identify current session scope

• Review the conversation history and edit history of this session.
• Build an explicit list of files that were created, modified, or deleted by this session.
• If the user provided a scope list (files or modules), use that as the authoritative source.

Step 0-2: Inspect full working tree state

• Run git status and git diff --name-only to enumerate all uncommitted changes in the working tree.

Step 0-3: Classify changes

• In-scope: Files that appear in both the session scope (Step 0-1) and the working tree (Step 0-2).
• Out-of-scope: Files that appear in the working tree but were NOT modified by this session. These may belong to other agent sessions, manual edits, or background tooling.

Step 0-4: Protect out-of-scope changes

• NEVER revert, restore, checkout, stash, or discard out-of-scope changes.
• Out-of-scope files must be left exactly as they are in the working tree.
• The only correct action is to exclude them from staging (git add).

Step 0-5: Confirm with the user

• Present a summary to the user:
  • Files to be committed (in-scope)
  • Files left untouched (out-of-scope), if any
• Proceed only after the user confirms the commit target set.
• Validate that new/deleted in-scope files do not break entrypoints.

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Gate 1 – Duplicate & Dead Code Detection

SCOPING RULE: Focus analysis on in-scope files only (from Gate 0). When checking for duplicates, search for similar patterns in the immediate module/directory first, then expand to adjacent modules only if duplication signals are found.

• Identify repeated logic blocks
  • If repeated ≥ 3 times → extract helper
  • Avoid over-abstraction
• Remove:
  • Unused variables
  • Dead branches
  • Debug prints
  • Stale TODOs without references

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Gate 2 – Hardcoded Value Audit

SCOPE ADJUSTMENT: If all in-scope changes are limited to test files, documentation, or type definitions, perform a quick scan (search for numeric literals and string constants in the diff) instead of a full classification audit. The full audit is required when production logic files are in scope.

Classify hardcoded values into:

A) Algorithmic constants → Extract to named constant + documentation
B) Operational policies → Move to config/env + default fallback
C) Test-only values → Restrict to test scope

Ensure:

• No hidden policy decisions remain hardcoded
• Retry limits, timeouts, thresholds are explicit

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Gate 3 – Consistency & Quality Review

Verify:

• Error handling patterns consistent
• Logging structure aligned with project conventions
• No PII/secrets exposed
• Public interface compatibility preserved
• No accidental performance regression

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Gate 4 – Verification Proof

Run relevant project checks:

• Tests
• Lint
• Typecheck
• Build

If failures occur:

• Fix root cause
• Do not silence or bypass checks

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Gate 5 – Commit Structuring

Staging rule: Stage only in-scope files confirmed in Gate 0. Use git add <specific-file> for each file individually. Never use git add ., git add -A, or git add --all.

Separate commits logically:

1. Refactor (no behavior change)
2. Functional change
3. Tests / documentation

Use Conventional Commits:

• fix(scope):
• feat(scope):
• refactor(scope):
• test(scope):
• docs(scope):
• chore(scope):

Each commit must explain:

• What changed
• Why it changed
• Risk considerations (if any)
• Test proof

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Gate 6 – Post-Publish Cleanup Handoff

After any commit, push, PR creation, or PR merge performed as part of this workflow, run Gate 6 of branch-context-check.

Required behavior:

• If only local commits were created, state whether push/PR is pending and what branch remains checked out.
• If a branch was pushed and the PR is still open, offer to keep the branch, switch back to base, or leave cleanup for after merge.
• If a PR was merged, offer or perform approved cleanup: switch to base, fast-forward pull, delete the local task branch, delete the remote task branch, prune remote refs, and prune stale worktree metadata.
• If a separate worktree was used, offer or perform approved worktree removal only after confirming that worktree is clean.

Do not end the workflow after push or merge without reporting the cleanup decision. Deletion still requires the safety checks from branch-context-check Gate 6 (inline fallback: delete only when the working tree is clean, the PR is merged or the user confirms the branch is obsolete, the branch is not the current checkout, and no other branch or worktree depends on it).

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Guardrails

• Do not silence or bypass failing checks.
• Do not combine unrelated changes in a single commit.
• Do not commit until branch/worktree intent has passed branch-context-check or the user has explicitly accepted an ambiguous verdict.
• Do not end after commit/push/merge without running the post-publish cleanup handoff.
• Do not over-abstract when extracting helpers (repeated ≥ 3 times threshold).
• Explicitly state assumptions when classifying hardcoded values.
• If context is insufficient to determine intent, ask for clarification.
• Do not remove code without verifying it is truly unused.
• Respect existing project conventions for commit messages and structure.
• NEVER use git checkout -- <file>, git restore, git stash, git reset --hard, or any other command that discards or reverts uncommitted changes to files outside the current session's scope. Other sessions or agents may own those changes.
• NEVER use git add ., git add -A, or git add --all. Always stage files individually with git add <specific-file> to avoid accidentally including out-of-scope changes.
• Working tree changes from other sessions, agents, or manual edits must be left completely untouched.

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Failure Patterns

Common bad outputs:

• Lumping all changes into a single large commit without logical separation
• Skipping build/lint/test verification before committing
• Ignoring hardcoded values because they "look fine"
• Over-extracting helpers for code repeated only once or twice
• Removing code that appears dead but is used via reflection or dynamic imports
• Producing commit messages that describe "what" but not "why"
• Reverting or discarding uncommitted changes that belong to other sessions or agents
• Using git add . or git add -A which accidentally stages out-of-scope changes
• Treating "ensure no unintended changes" as "revert unrelated files" instead of "exclude from staging"
• Continuing on a stale branch because the working tree is clean
• Treating a dirty previous-session branch as safe just because current-session files can be staged individually
• Pushing or merging successfully, then leaving stale local/remote branches or worktrees without offering cleanup choices
• Deleting branches or worktrees after merge without verifying clean state and merged/obsolete status

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Example 1 (Minimal Context)

Input:

3 files changed: a utility function was refactored, an unused import was found, and a debug console.log was left in.

Output:

1. Issues Found: unused import in utils/parse.ts, debug log in api/handler.ts
2. Branch Context Verdict: match — current branch and dirty files align with the cleanup task
3. Actions Taken: removed unused import, removed debug log
4. Verification Results: lint pass, tests pass, build pass
5. Commit Plan: single refactor commit (scope is small)
6. Final Commit Messages: refactor(utils): clean up unused import and debug log
7. Post-Publish Cleanup Decision: not applicable yet — local commit only; push or PR cleanup will be decided after publish

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Example 2 (Realistic Scenario)

Input:

12 files changed across 3 modules. Includes a retry timeout hardcoded as 3000, duplicated validation logic in 4 handlers, and a new API endpoint.

Output:

1. Issues Found: hardcoded retry timeout (3000ms) in services/retry.ts, duplicated input validation in 4 route handlers, unused helper formatLegacy in utils/format.ts
2. Branch Context Verdict: match — branch name, recent commits, and in-scope files align with the API work
3. Actions Taken: extracted retry timeout to config (RETRY_TIMEOUT_MS), created shared validateInput() helper, removed formatLegacy
4. Verification Results: all tests pass, lint pass, typecheck pass, build pass
5. Commit Plan: 3 commits — (a) refactor: extract shared validation, (b) refactor: move retry timeout to config, (c) feat: add new API endpoint
6. Final Commit Messages:
   • refactor(validation): extract shared validateInput helper from route handlers
   • refactor(retry): move hardcoded timeout to config as RETRY_TIMEOUT_MS
   • feat(api): add POST /items endpoint with input validation
7. Post-Publish Cleanup Decision: after PR merge, offer switch-to-base, local/remote branch deletion, remote prune, and worktree prune; do not delete while the PR is still open

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Notes

FAST MODE (only if explicitly requested):

• Skip deep hardcoded classification
• Allow single commit only if scope is small