Minimalist Skill

Make coding agents write less code, use fewer tokens, and skip the bloat.

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What it does: Minimalist helps coding agents do less. It pushes them to write smaller diffs, use fewer tokens, skip extra dependencies, and avoid features you did not ask for. It also keeps a record of what it refused to build, so the same bloat does not come back later.

It is minimal, but not reckless: it does not remove validation, auth, error handling, cleanup, tests, or secret-safety checks just to save lines.

In short: in a real Claude Code LOC benchmark, Minimalist wrote on average about 41% less code, used 24% fewer tokens, cost 24% less, and ran 20% faster than no-skill baseline. All 288 LOC cells were correct.

This is a real agentic run, not a single-shot prompt: Claude Code edited a pinned FastAPI + React template and the benchmark scored the git diff it left behind.

arm	LOC	tokens	cost	time
baseline	100%	100%	100%	100%
caveman	85%	72%	76%	80%
minimalist	59%	76%	76%	80%
yagni-oneliner	79%	94%	119%	113%
token-efficient	112%	121%	132%	143%

Raw files:

• benchmarks/results/2026-07-05-agentic.md
• benchmarks/results/2026-07-05-agentic.json

It ships as two skills:

• /minimalist for coding tasks: less code, fewer tokens, fewer invented requirements, no unsafe shortcuts.
• /minimalist-general for writing, planning, research, and decisions: the same subtraction discipline without code-specific rules.

Ask your agent for a date picker. Left alone, it installs a library, writes a wrapper component, a stylesheet, and a paragraph about timezones you didn't ask for. With minimalist:

<!-- descent step 4: the platform already has one -->
<input type="date">

Minimalist makes the agent ask simple questions before it writes code: does this need to exist, is it already in the repo, does the language or browser already do it, can it be one line? Only after that does it write new code. Every rejected abstraction or dependency can be logged, so the same scope debate does not have to happen again next week.

[!TIP] Turn it on: it's active by default the moment the plugin's installed. Switch modes with /minimalist lite|full|ultra|off, or say "stop minimalist" / "normal mode" to step out any time.

[!IMPORTANT] Honest numbers, not vibes. Minimalist never invents a savings figure. Every number above is a real measured run, not a guess.

The ledger

Every time the agent skips a dependency or a piece of extra code, it logs the decision to a file on your machine — so you can check later what it skipped and why, instead of just trusting a line in chat:

$ node scripts/log-rejection.js --report
3 rejected-scope entries in ~/.minimalist/ledger.jsonl

- [platform] date picker library -> <input type="date">
- [yagni] config flag for a value that never changes
- [stdlib] custom debounce helper -> AbortController + setTimeout

/minimalist-gain reads this file back — real history, not the model's memory of the last five minutes.

Install

Node.js 18+ on PATH (for the two lifecycle hooks; skills work without it).

Claude Code

/plugin marketplace add DivyeshJayswal/minimalist
/plugin install minimalist@minimalist

Desktop app: Customize → personal plugins → Add from repository → repo URL.

Codex

codex plugin marketplace add DivyeshJayswal/minimalist

/plugins → install Minimalist → /hooks → trust its two hooks → new thread.

GitHub Copilot CLI

copilot plugin marketplace add DivyeshJayswal/minimalist
copilot plugin install minimalist@minimalist

Commands are namespaced: /minimalist:minimalist ultra.

Gemini CLI

gemini extensions install https://github.com/DivyeshJayswal/minimalist

Antigravity CLI

agy plugin install https://github.com/DivyeshJayswal/minimalist

Reuses the Gemini extension; also ships .agents/rules/ for always-on rules.

π Pi agent harness

pi install git:github.com/DivyeshJayswal/minimalist

OpenCode

{ "plugin": ["minimalist-skill"] }

Or from a checkout: { "plugin": ["./.opencode/plugins/minimalist.mjs"] }. OpenCode also auto-loads this repo's AGENTS.md.

☰ Hermes

hermes plugins install DivyeshJayswal/minimalist --enable

🦞 OpenClaw

clawhub install @divyeshjayswal/minimalist

The review, audit, gain, and help skills install the same way (clawhub install @divyeshjayswal/minimalist-review, and so on — the @divyeshjayswal/ prefix disambiguates from unrelated same-named skills on the registry). Without ClawHub, skills ship in .openclaw/skills/; point your skills path at the repo.

Cursor · Windsurf · Cline · Kiro · Devin · CodeWhale · Swival — rule files are pre-generated, copy the one you need: .cursor/rules/minimalist.mdc, .windsurf/rules/minimalist.md, .clinerules/minimalist.md, .kiro/steering/minimalist.md, .github/copilot-instructions.md, .devin-plugin/, or generic AGENTS.md.

Update

Most installs point back to this repo. After a release, Git-based installs update by pulling/reinstalling from GitHub; registry installs update from the registry they came from.

install type	examples	update path
Git-based	Gemini, Antigravity, Pi, local OpenCode, copied rule files	pull or reinstall from GitHub; copy rule files again if needed
Marketplace/plugin wrapper	Claude Code, Codex, Copilot CLI, Hermes	update/reinstall through that tool's plugin command
Registry copy	npm/OpenCode package, ClawHub/OpenClaw	publish the new package there, then update through that registry

Uninstall

node scripts/uninstall.js

Commands

command	does
/minimalist [lite|full|ultra|off]	for coding tasks — set intensity (default full)
/minimalist-general [lite|full|ultra|off]	for everything else: writing, planning, research
/minimalist-review	review a diff for bloat — and for missing guards
/minimalist-audit	ranked deletion candidates across the codebase
/minimalist-gain	the ledger, read back — measured, never invented
/minimalist-help	the whole tool in 15 lines

lite just flags over-engineering and lets you decide. full (the default) actually enforces the rules. ultra goes further and keeps its own explanations to almost nothing. The safety guardrail never turns off, at any of the three. Say "stop minimalist" or "normal mode" to switch it off entirely.

How it works

Minimalist has one rulebook (skills/minimalist/SKILL.md). Every supported tool — Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, Gemini, OpenCode, and the rest — gets its own copy generated from that single file, so the rules stay identical everywhere instead of drifting between nine hand-maintained versions.

Your chosen level (lite/full/ultra/off) and the rejection ledger both persist in ~/.minimalist/, so they carry over between sessions.

If you're also running another instruction skill (like an output-style skill), minimalist won't fight it — it defers on prose style and keeps enforcing code-minimalism.

Star this repo

Costs nothing, helps someone else find the smaller version of what they were about to build. Fair trade. ⭐

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Write less. Prove it. Break nothing.