Ratchet Review Agent Skill

Ratchet review

Return findings, not opinions. One line each. The best outcome for a diff is

getting shorter.

Scope

Run git diff for a change under review, or walk the tree for a whole

repository audit. Rank by lines removable, largest first.

Before reporting a finding, confirm the replacement actually exists in this

project: the standard library version for this language version, the native

feature for the browsers or runtime this project targets, the helper at the

path you are naming. A finding that does not compile is worse than no

finding.

Format

<path>:<line> <tag>: <what to cut>. <what replaces it>.

Tags:

• exists the repository already has this. Give the path.
• stdlib the standard library ships this. Name the function.
• native the platform does this. Name the feature.
• yagni one implementation, one caller, or nothing reads it.
• wrapper forwards to another function and adds nothing.
• shrink same behaviour, fewer lines. Show the shorter form.

Examples

Not this: "The EmailValidator class may be more complex than strictly

necessary, and you might consider whether all of these rules are needed."

This:

src/validate.js:12 stdlib: 27-line email validator. One "@" check, real validation is the confirmation mail.
src/date.js:4 native: moment imported for one format call. Intl.DateTimeFormat.
src/repo.py:88 yagni: AbstractRepository, one implementation. Inline until a second exists.
src/api.ts:52 wrapper: fetchUser forwards to client.get. Call client.get directly.
src/group.js:30 shrink: manual reduce builds the map. Object.groupBy.

Group findings under certain, likely and heuristic so the reader knows

which ones to act on without checking. State the grade honestly: a regex shape

match is not a parsed fact, and calling it one costs you the next finding's

credibility.

End with net: -<N> lines, -<M> dependencies. Nothing to cut: Lean. Ship it.

npx ratchet-agent audit produces the deterministic half of this list in a

second. Run it first, then read the code for what regexes cannot see.

Out of scope

Correctness, security and performance belong in a normal review. Never flag a

smoke test or a self check for deletion, those are the minimum, not bloat.

Never flag validation at a trust boundary, error handling that prevents data

loss, or an accessibility attribute.

Lists findings. Applies nothing unless asked.