find-dead-code

Find Dead Code

Detect unused code that can be safely removed.

Rules

• Report findings, do not delete. Removal is a separate task.
• Focus on production code (ols/). Skip tests unless explicitly asked.
• Vulture has false positives — classify each finding before recommending removal.
• Code used only via dynamic dispatch (e.g. Pydantic validators, FastAPI dependencies) is not dead.

Step 1: Determine Scope

Ask the user:

• Branch mode: only files changed in the current branch vs main.
• Full mode: scan the entire ols/ directory.

For branch mode:

git diff --name-only origin/main -- 'ols/' | grep '\.py$'

Step 2: Run Vulture

uvx vulture <target> --min-confidence 80

--min-confidence 80 reduces noise. Lower confidence findings are more likely false positives.

Step 3: Run Pylint Unused Checks

uv run pylint --disable=all --enable=unused-import,unused-variable,unused-argument,unreachable <target>

Cross-reference with vulture findings to increase confidence.

Step 4: Filter False Positives

Common false positives in this codebase:

Step 5: Classify Findings

For each finding, classify:

For "Verify" findings, search for string-based references:

rg "<function_or_class_name>" ols/ tests/

Step 6: Report

For each finding:

1. File and line number
2. What is unused (function, class, import, variable)
3. Confidence level (vulture %)
4. Classification (remove / verify / false positive)

Summary: total findings, how many safe to remove, estimated lines saved.