Complexity Mitigator

Intent

Reduce understanding cost in existing code while preserving essential domain meaning. This skill is a read-only routing rail and analysis preflight, not a delivery owner.

FACTORING -> WINNOWING

• Factor the code into responsibilities, states, effects, decisions, and

boundaries.

• Retain essential domain factors.
• Expose specification-risk factors before refactoring.
• Remove, collapse, rename, localize, or delegate incidental factors.
• Route repeated semantic distinctions or causal review pressure to

$review-fold and $actuating.

Activation

Use for hard-to-follow existing code, deep nesting, boolean soup, mixed parse/validate/decide/effect behavior, cross-file hops, hidden state, ordering dependencies, opaque names, and review stalls caused by comprehension.

Handoff instead:

• broad framework or layer tax -> $reduce;
• unclassified review evidence -> $review-fold;
• classified owner-boundary pressure -> $actuating;
• illegal states or invariant ownership -> $invariant-ace;
• missing essential structural shape -> $universalist;
• implementation -> $actuating or the owning workflow.

Workflow

1. Choose the slice: entry point, inputs, outputs, state, effects, and boundary.
2. Factor it into responsibilities, decisions, state, effects, external

obligations, and proof surfaces.

1. Classify each factor as essential, incidental, mixed, or spec-risk.
2. Identify duplicated, dominated, subsumed, vestigial, pass-through, or

misplaced factors.

1. Preserve essential factors and unresolved specification risk.
2. Winnow in this order: delegate, flatten, rename, localize, collapse, then

extract only after stable repetition is evidenced.

1. State the recomposition rule and smallest proof signal.
2. Return a handoff; do not implement.

Actuating composition

Within Actuating, the checked-in [complexity review lens](../actuating/references/lenses/complexity-review.md) owns the lane's scope and return shape. Its focus is unnecessary correctness machinery and duplicate semantic ownership, not the full standalone comprehension preflight. Return the independently maintained truth, accepted obligation, and evidence; distinguish competing owners from derived guards and independent oracles. Keep grounded nonblocking opportunities separate from established violations. Do not select a repair, launch companion reviews, or emit a second preflight, evidence table, or proposed-repair agenda. Review Fold adjudicates and Actuating owns the construction decision. This section takes precedence over standalone workflow, routing, and output only within Actuating. Standalone behavior is unchanged.

Output

Complexity preflight:
- whole:
- dominant cost:
- factorization:
- retain:
- remove/collapse/delegate:
- unresolved specification risk:
- recomposition:
- proof:
- handoff:

Guardrails

• Do not edit files or commit.
• Do not select architecture, review credit, mutation, or closure.
• Do not confuse fewer lines with lower understanding cost.
• Do not delete essential policy or unresolved external obligations.
• Do not extract abstractions before stable shape is visible.
• If behavior is unclear, request an executable learning surface such as an

example matrix, contract test, fixture set, or state table.