trim

Reviews diffs and prose artefacts to remove content that does not earn its weight.

4|Updated Jun 9, 2026
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/laicluse/agent-fieldkit --skill trim-laicluse
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: trim
Source: https://github.com/laicluse/agent-fieldkit/tree/main/.agents/plugins/generated/rover/skills/trim
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/laicluse/agent-fieldkit --skill trim-laicluse

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

What problem does it solve? Autonomous review loops keep adding findings, so a small requested change grows into an oversized diff or bloated document. Trim is the subtraction-biased counterweight: it asks what should not be there relative to what was actually requested. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Subtraction-focused review: Delegates a fresh reviewer to walk a code diff or prose artefact against the original Dispatch text using five tests (carry-its-weight, mission-relevance, defensive-addition, over-explanation, cumulative-weight). - Structured findings with fates: Each finding is resolved as remove, keep-with-rationale, or reject-as-non-issue, and removals land as a separate trim commit before the mission is stowed. - Use Case: After an autonomous coding session turned a two-line fix into a two-hundred-line diff, run /rover:trim to identify and delete the helpers, guards, and comments that the original task never asked for. ## Quick Start Ask the agent to run /rover:trim on the current branch to review the diff against the original task and remove anything that does not earn its weight.

Frequently Asked Questions about trim

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I reduce scope creep in an AI-generated code diff?▼

Run a subtraction-focused review that compares the diff against the original task description. The trim pass flags helpers, guards, comments, and abstractions that fail carry-its-weight or mission-relevance tests, then removes them as a separate commit.

How to run the trim review manually?▼

Invoke /rover:trim to review uncommitted changes plus branch commits, /rover:trim <ref> for a specific commit range like HEAD~3..HEAD, or /rover:trim uncommitted for only the working-tree diff.

What is the difference between trim and STOW cleanup?▼

Trim is a judgment pass that removes content not earning its weight relative to the request, such as defensive guards or redundant paragraphs. STOW is mechanical cleanup of obvious leftovers like debug prints, unused imports, and commented-out code.

Can trim review documents and prose, not just code?▼

Yes. Trim has a dedicated prose brief covering research briefs, plans, PR descriptions, prompts, and SKILL.md edits. It applies restatement, defensive-explanation, and cumulative-weight tests to find sentences and sections that should be cut.

What happens if the trim reviewer finds nothing to remove?▼

A finding of nothing is valid, but the reviewer must list what it examined and justify in one sentence per section why each part earned its weight. Vague confirmations like "looks tight" are rejected.