Hard Cut

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.