Repo Gardening: A Guide to Surgical Git History

I documented a full ‘repo gardening’ session, which felt like a significant step up in my developer discipline. It started with learning Conventional Commits to make my history more searchable. Then I moved on to the main tasks: purging a huge folder of unused SVG icons and an entire directory of old notes called ‘cruft’. The key wasn’t just deleting them, but doing it in a way that I could easily go back in time and recover any file if needed. I figured out a two-commit ‘bookmarking’ technique for the cruft folder and used a classic /tmp swap for the icons. This entire process was done directly on the main branch, demonstrating how a solo developer can work cleanly and efficiently without the overhead of experimental branches for this kind of maintenance. It felt like I was sharpening my command-line skills and creating a much healthier, more professional project.

By Mike Levin

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Get Pipulate [View Markdown Source]

Setting the Stage: Context for the Curious Book Reader

This technical journal entry chronicles a methodical ‘repo gardening’ session, moving beyond theory to a practical demonstration of advanced Git workflows for a solo developer. It documents the entire process of identifying and purging unused assets—specifically a large icon set and an archive of old notes—while ensuring every deleted file remains easily recoverable. This is achieved not through complex branching, but by leveraging command-line tools like ripgrep for surgical analysis and crafting a ‘bookmark’ in the Git history. The entry serves as a hands-on guide to maintaining a clean, lightweight repository without sacrificing historical context, turning a potentially risky cleanup into a precise and reversible act of digital craftsmanship.

Technical Journal Entry Begins

In our last entry, we performed a bit of procedural magic I’ve come to call the “main branch takeover.” It was less a simple merge and more of a Time Lord regeneration for the repository. My experimental magicuser branch—home to the new magical incantation stream orchestrator—didn’t just contribute its changes; it fundamentally and permanently became the new main branch, absorbing all of its predecessor’s history and moving the project’s timeline forward. This decisive act left us with a clean, unified history and a powerful new spell in our scripts folder, regenerate.sh, to automate the entire process for the future.

With that foundational work complete, the stage is now perfectly set for the real task at hand: weeding the garden. The main branch takeover was about preparing the soil; today is about methodically pruning the overgrowth. We’ll start with the low-hanging fruit: the entire directory of feather SVG icons and a collection of old files I’ve relegated to a cruft/ folder. These unused assets are digital noise, cluttering search results and distracting both me and my AI assistants.

But this isn’t just a blind rm -rf. A few of those icons are actually in use, and I might one day need to recover something from the cruft/ directory’s past. This exercise, therefore, has a dual purpose. First, we’ll use ripgrep (rg) to surgically identify which files are truly unlinked and safe to remove, using .gitignore to filter our search. Second, and more importantly, this is an opportunity to sharpen our Git skills. By creating a well-labeled commit right before the purge, we’ll ensure that any future “repo history diving” is a precise archaeological dig with the command line, not a desperate scroll through a web UI. Let the weeding begin.

Adopting Conventional Commits

Me: Excellent. One more point of housekeeping before we begin. Another habit I would like to get into is the good naming convention people are using with git these days full of words like feat. Can you spell out what’s going on there for me and what rules I should try to abide by to make future repo-diving easier even when I don’t tag the commit hashes. I assume it’s based on searching the commit messages for keywords and such.

Gemini: Of course. That’s an excellent habit to build. You’re describing the Conventional Commits specification, a widely adopted lightweight convention for formatting Git commit messages.

The entire system is designed to create a clean, explicit, and easily parsable commit history. This is incredibly useful for you as a solo developer for repo-diving and will be essential if you ever accept pull requests. It allows both humans and automated tools to understand the nature of a change at a glance.

The Structure: `type(scope): subject` 🏷️

A conventional commit message is structured simply:

<type>[optional scope]: <description>

[optional body]

[optional footer]

Type: A short word that defines the kind of change you made. This is the most important part.
Scope (optional): A noun describing the section of the codebase the commit affects. (e.g., api, scripts, auth).
Description: A short, imperative-tense summary of the change (e.g., “add,” “fix,” “change,” not “added,” “fixed,” “changed”).

The Core Types You Should Know

You should try to use these standard types. They cover about 99% of all changes you’ll make.

feat: A new feature for the user. (e.g., feat: add user profile page)
fix: A bug fix for the user. (e.g., fix: prevent crash on empty form submission)
docs: Changes to documentation only. (e.g., docs: update README with setup instructions)
style: Formatting changes that don’t affect code logic (whitespace, semicolons, etc.). (e.g., style: format server.py with black)
refactor: A code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature. (e.g., refactor: extract database logic into separate service)
test: Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests. (e.g., test: add unit tests for MCP orchestrator)
chore: General housekeeping, updating build tasks, package manager configs, etc. No production code changes. (e.g., chore: add regenerate.sh script to repo)
perf: A code change that improves performance. (e.g., perf: optimize image loading with caching)

Putting It All Together: Examples

Here’s how you could apply this to your recent work and future plans.

A simple feature:

git commit -m "feat(scripts): add main branch takeover script"

This is instantly searchable. Looking for when you added a new tool? Search for feat(scripts).

A fix with more detail:

git commit -m "fix(api): correct pagination error for large datasets

The query was off-by-one, causing the last item on a page to be skipped when more than 100 results were returned."

The subject gives the “what,” and the body explains the “why.”

A refactor that is a breaking change: A breaking change is a commit that changes how the application works in a way that is not backward-compatible. You signify this by adding an ! after the type/scope and/or adding a BREAKING CHANGE: footer.

git commit -m "refactor(auth)!: rename user ID field from 'uid' to 'user_id'

BREAKING CHANGE: The primary user identifier in the database and API response has been changed from `uid` to `user_id` to improve clarity. Downstream consumers of the API will need to update their clients."

Why This Makes Repo-Diving a Surgical Operation surgically

By sticking to this convention, you make your commit history a structured database. You can now use simple git commands to find exactly what you’re looking for, no git tag required.

To see all new features you’ve added: git log --grep="^feat"
To find bug fixes related to the API: git log --grep="^fix(api)"
To quickly generate a changelog for a release: You can easily see all feat and fix commits since your last tag. This is how tools like semantic-release automatically generate release notes and version numbers.

Adopting this habit will make your project history vastly more navigable and professional.

A Lesson in Command-Line Aliases

Me:

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$ git commit -am "style(config): remove unused svg variables from config.py"
[main c6b6b6b] style(config): remove unused svg variables from config.py
 4 files changed, 51 deletions(-)

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$ git push
Enumerating objects: 15, done.
Counting objects: 100% (15/15), done.
Delta compression using up to 48 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (8/8), done.
Writing objects: 100% (8/8), 697 bytes | 697.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 8 (delta 7), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0 (from 0)
remote: Resolving deltas: 100% (7/7), completed with 7 local objects.
To github.com:miklevin/pipulate
   5902de3..c6b6b6b  main -> main

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$

Excellent! Once I’ve done a commit and push, how do I easily do a git diff between the last 2 commits without having to figure out their hash tags so that I can easily copy it into my OS copy buffer and show it to you here by pasting into the article? I use the xc and xv aliases which I don’t expect you to use in the response, but just so that you know the OS and tools I’m working with:

    xc = "xclip -selection clipboard <";
    xv = "xclip -selection clipboard -o >";

Gemini: You can use git show to see the changes from the most recent commit or git diff with relative references like HEAD and HEAD~1.

The Easiest Way: `git show` 🎯

For viewing the changes introduced by the very last commit, the git show command is the simplest and most direct tool. It displays the commit message and the exact diff of the changes.

To pipe this directly into your clipboard, you would run:

git show | xc

This command shows the patch for the most recent commit (HEAD) compared to its parent (HEAD~1).

The More General Way: `git diff`

If you want to explicitly compare the last two commits, you can use HEAD (which points to your last commit) and HEAD~1 (which points to the commit before that).

To get just the diff output between them and pipe it to your clipboard, run:

git diff HEAD~1 HEAD | xc

For your use case, git show is likely what you want as it’s shorter and also includes the commit message for context, which is perfect for pasting into your journal.

Me:

git show works without piping to xc, but:

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$ git show | xc

bash: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]

Gemini: That error happens because your xc alias is defined with the input redirection symbol (<), which is conflicting with the pipe (|).

The “Why” ⚙️

Your alias xc = "xclip -selection clipboard <" is designed to take the contents of a file and put it on the clipboard. The < symbol tells the shell, “The input for this command is coming from the file that follows.”

When you run git show | xc, the shell does two things:

The pipe (|) tells the shell, “Take the output of git show and send it as the input to the next command.”
The alias xc expands, and the shell sees ... | xclip -selection clipboard <.

The shell gets confused because it’s being told to get input from the pipe and from a file that you haven’t named. It sees the < and expects a filename, but all it finds is the end of the line, causing the syntax error near unexpected token 'newline'.

The Fix

To work with pipes, the xclip command doesn’t need the < symbol at all; it automatically reads from the standard input stream that the pipe provides.

You have two easy options:

Use the Full Command This is the most direct way. Just type out the command without the problematic redirection.
```
git show | xclip -selection clipboard
```

Create a Pipe-Friendly Alias It’s useful to have a separate alias for this common task. You could name it xcp (for “xclip pipe”) or something similar.

# Add this to your shell's config file (e.g., .bashrc, .zshrc)
alias xcp='xclip -selection clipboard'

# Then you can use it like this:
git show | xcp

This new alias correctly defines a command that is ready to receive input from a pipe.

Identifying Unused Icons with Ripgrep

Me: I added the alias.

git show | xcp

commit c6b6b6b32b6087f3315e8405ca1b71958758f211
Author: Mike Levin <miklevin@gmail.com>
Date:   Tue Sep 23 05:58:11 2025 -0400

    style(config): remove unused svg variables from config.py

diff --git a/assets/styles.css b/assets/styles.css
index 5a3081c..145172a 100644
--- a/assets/styles.css
+++ b/assets/styles.css
@@ -1968,43 +1968,6 @@ span[data-tooltip] {
     text-decoration: none !important;
 }
 
-/* ============================================================================
-   CENTRALIZED EMBEDDED SVG ICONS - Optimal Tooltip Solution
-   ============================================================================
-   
-   🤖 NOTE FOR FUTURE AI ASSISTANTS:
-   
-   This is the OPTIMAL SOLUTION for tooltip-enabled SVG icons.
-   
-   ❓ THE PROBLEM: External SVG files with <img> tags don't work well with PicoCSS tooltips
-   ❓ THE CHALLENGE: Need working tooltips + theme-aware icons + clean code
-   
-   ✅ THE SOLUTION: Centralized embedded SVGs with NotStr() and span wrappers
-   
-   🎯 USAGE PATTERN:
-   Python: Span(NotStr(INFO_SVG), data_tooltip='Your tooltip text', data_placement='left')
-   Result: Perfect tooltips + theme adaptation + clean code
-   
-   🔄 WHY THIS BEATS EXTERNAL SVGs:
-   - PicoCSS tooltips work perfectly on span elements
-   - SVG currentColor automatically adapts to theme
-   - Centralized constants prevent code duplication
-   - No external file dependencies
-   - Tooltip attributes work reliably
-   
-   🎨 THEME COVERAGE:
-   - SVG uses stroke="currentColor" for automatic theme adaptation
-   - No CSS filter rules needed - SVG inherits text color naturally
-   - Works with all theme modes: explicit and system preferences
-   
-   📝 TO ADD MORE ICONS:
-   1. Add SVG constant at top of server.py: ICON_NAME_SVG = '''<svg>...</svg>'''
-   2. Use in Python: Span(NotStr(ICON_NAME_SVG), data_tooltip='...', data_placement='...')
-   3. Add margin-left in the span style if needed
-   
-   This pattern gives you the best of all worlds: working tooltips + perfect theming + clean code!
-   ============================================================================ */
-
 /* Info icon styling - reusable for all info tooltips */
 .info-icon {
     width: 20px;
diff --git a/config.py b/config.py
index 11bb2bd..7d78b9f 100644
--- a/config.py
+++ b/config.py
@@ -387,7 +387,3 @@ AVAILABLE_ROLES = {
 # 🔑 API Token Configuration (STANDARDIZED FILE PATHS)
 BOTIFY_TOKEN_FILE = 'botify_token.txt'  # Root level token file
 BOTIFY_HELPERS_TOKEN_FILE = 'helpers/botify/botify_token.txt'  # Helper scripts token file 
-
-INFO_SVG = '''<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="feather feather-info"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10"></circle><line x1="12" y1="16" x2="12" y2="12"></line><line x1="12" y1="8" x2="12.01" y2="8"></line></svg>'''
-EXTERNAL_LINK_SVG = '''<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="14" height="14" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="feather feather-external-link"><path d="M18 13v6a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H5a2 2 0 0 1-2-2V8a2 2 0 0 1 2-2h6"></path><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><line x1="10" y1="14" x2="21" y2="3"></line></svg>'''
-SETTINGS_SVG = '''<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="22" height="22" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="3"></circle><path d="M19.4 15a1.65 1.65 0 0 0 .33 1.82l.06.06a2 2 0 0 1 0 2.83 2 2 0 0 1-2.83 0l-.06-.06a1.65 1.65 0 0 0-1.82-.33 1.65 1.65 0 0 0-1 1.51V21a2 2 0 0 1-2 2 2 2 0 0 1-2-2v-.09A1.65 1.65 0 0 0 9 19.4a1.65 1.65 0 0 0-1.82.33l-.06.06a2 2 0 0 1-2.83 0 2 2 0 0 1 0-2.83l.06-.06a1.65 1.65 0 0 0 .33-1.82 1.65 1.65 0 0 0-1.51-1H3a2 2 0 0 1-2-2 2 2 0 0 1 2-2h.09A1.65 1.65 0 0 0 4.6 9a1.65 1.65 0 0 0-.33-1.82l-.06-.06a2 2 0 0 1 0-2.83 2 2 0 0 1 2.83 0l.06.06a1.65 1.65 0 0 0 1.82.33H9a1.65 1.65 0 0 0 1-1.51V3a2 2 0 0 1 2-2 2 2 0 0 1 2 2v.09a1.65 1.65 0 0 0 1 1.51 1.65 1.65 0 0 0 1.82-.33l.06-.06a2 2 0 0 1 2.83 0 2 2 0 0 1 0 2.83l-.06.06a1.65 1.65 0 0 0-.33 1.82V9a1.65 1.65 0 0 0 1.51 1H21a2 2 0 0 1 2 2 2 2 0 0 1-2 2h-.09a1.65 1.65 0 0 0-1.51 1z"></path></svg>'''
diff --git a/scripts/vulture_whitelist.py b/scripts/vulture_whitelist.py
index eb699dc..ef75de0 100644
--- a/scripts/vulture_whitelist.py
+++ b/scripts/vulture_whitelist.py
@@ -17,11 +17,6 @@
 # Configuration variables used conditionally
 custom_theme = {}
 
-# SVG constants used in templates
-INFO_SVG = ""
-EXTERNAL_LINK_SVG = ""
-SETTINGS_SVG = ""
-
 # Exception class for control flow
 class GracefulRestartException:
     pass
@@ -135,9 +130,6 @@ conversation = []
 
 # Use all the items defined above to prevent vulture from flagging them
 _ = custom_theme
-_ = INFO_SVG
-_ = EXTERNAL_LINK_SVG
-_ = SETTINGS_SVG
 _ = GracefulRestartException
 _ = monitor_conversation_efficiency
 _ = startup_event
diff --git a/server.py b/server.py
index 68b1e65..fb8c614 100644
--- a/server.py
+++ b/server.py
@@ -113,8 +113,6 @@ MAX_LLM_RESPONSE_WORDS
 MAX_CONVERSATION_LENGTH
 HOME_MENU_ITEM
 DEFAULT_ACTIVE_ROLES
-INFO_SVG
-EXTERNAL_LINK_SVG
 SETTINGS_SVG
 DEMO_STATE_FILE
 DEFAULT_ACTIVE_ROLES

Gemini: Excellent. That’s a perfect first step in the weeding process. You’ve cleanly removed the now-unused SVG variables from your Python configuration (config.py, vulture_whitelist.py), the reference from server.py, and the large explanatory comment block from your CSS. Using the style(config) commit type was a great choice, as it clearly communicates a change that doesn’t alter the logic.

Now you’re ready to tackle the larger assets/feather/ directory itself.

Finding Lingering Connections 🌱

As you planned, the next step is to use ripgrep (rg) to hunt for any remaining icons that are actually being used. This will confirm that deleting the directory is safe.

ripgrep automatically respects your .gitignore, so you don’t need to worry about it searching in unwanted places like __pycache__. To find any files that reference the icon folder, you can search for the path itself.

Run this command from the root of your repository:

rg "assets/feather/"

This will search your entire project for any file containing the string assets/feather/.

If you get any results, it will show you exactly which files still have references that need to be removed or updated.
If you get no results, you can be confident that the directory is no longer in use and you can proceed to the next step: deleting it.

Me: Deep breath. Okay, I need to find all reference to .svg files. I don’t want references to /svg folders but rather very in particular things that end with .svg because the Pipulate code is also filled with embedded svg objects like:

``python settings_svg = ‘’‘’’’

And you ought to actually see my `.gitignore`:

```plaintext
# ripgrep filters for good search & replaces with `rg | xargs sed` pattern
assets/js/
cruft/

# File-types that should never get into repo
*.csv
*.gz
*.json
*.pkl

# Different repos in subfolders of this repo
subrepos/

# Pipulate framework stuff
data/
downloads/
logs/
.ssh/key
*kungfu_*.py
botify_token.txt
flake.lock
foo.txt
foo_files.py
service_account.txt
whitelabel.txt

# Mac & vendor crap
.cursor/
.DS_Store

# Python, Jupyter Notebook & FastHTML stuff
.ipynb_checkpoints/
.jupyter/
.venv/
__pycache__/
.sesskey
hello_world.ipynb
training/botify_api_local.md

# Python packaging and build artifacts
build/
dist/
*.egg-info/
*.whl

# PyPI publishing artifacts
.pytest_cache/
.tox/
htmlcov/
.coverage

# AI Keychain persistent memory - survives application resets

# Browser automation outputs - keep these local only
browser_automation/looking_at/

# Browser automation rotating directories - AI perception history (local only)
browser_automation/looking_at-*/

# Browser automation temp scripts - disposable one-offs
browser_automation/temp_scripts/
*_automation_summary.txt
*_automation_targets.py
*_beautiful_dom.html
*_screenshot.png
*_source.html

# Directory rotation test files - development use only
browser_automation/test_rotation_data/

# Voice synthesis models - auto-downloaded as needed
piper_models/

…with all that in mind please update the rg command to find all actual icon usage, the stuff I don’t want to delete from assets/feather/.

Gemini: Use this ripgrep command to find all references to files ending in .svg:

rg "\.svg$"

How It Works ⚙️

This command uses a simple regular expression to find exactly what you’re looking for while ignoring the embedded SVG code blocks.

\.: The backslash escapes the dot, so ripgrep searches for a literal period character. Without this, a dot in regex means “any character,” which would give you incorrect matches.
svg: This matches the literal characters “svg”.
$: This is a regex “anchor” that matches the end of a line.

By combining these, the command searches for lines that specifically end with .svg, which is characteristic of a file path reference and will not match your Python variables containing <svg>...</svg> code. ripgrep will automatically use your .gitignore file to exclude all the specified directories and files from the search.

Useful Variations for Your Workflow 🛠️

Here are a couple of useful flags you might want to use:

List Only the Files That Contain Matches If you just want a clean list of which files have references, use the -l (--files-with-matches) flag.
```
rg -l "\.svg$"
```
Get More Context Around Each Match To see a few lines before and after each match, use the -C (--context) flag. This is helpful for understanding how the icon is being used.
```
# Show 2 lines of context before and after the match
rg -C 2 "\.svg$"
```

Me: I had to get rid of the end-of-line dollar-sign regex anchor to get anything to show and I had to drop the -l to get context:

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$ rg "\.svg"
apps/010_introduction.py
199:                            Img(src='/assets/feather/external-link.svg', 

apps/030_roles.py
551:                    Button(Img(src='/assets/feather/rewind.svg', 
696:        button = Button(Img(src='/assets/feather/rewind.svg', 

assets/images/ai-seo-software.svg
10:   sodipodi:docname="ai-seo-software.svg"
62:        <dc:identifier>https://www.pipulate.com/ai-seo-software.svg</dc:identifier>

assets/css/prism.css
361:	 * This font is generated from the .svg files in the `icons` folder. See the `treeviewIconFont` function in

server.py
4501:    icon_src = '/assets/feather/x-octagon.svg' if is_streaming else '/assets/feather/arrow-up-circle.svg'
4529:                Img(src='/assets/feather/x-octagon.svg', alt='Stop'),

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$

Gemini: You are absolutely right. My apologies, the $ anchor was too strict.

Your command output clearly shows why it failed: your code has characters like commas (,), single quotes ('), and parentheses ()) after the .svg on the same line. The $ anchor requires .svg to be the absolute last thing on the line, which it wasn’t.

Removing the $ and searching with rg "\.svg" was the correct and practical approach. The escaped dot (\.) is still doing the important work of distinguishing file paths from the embedded <svg> tags.

Analysis of Your Findings

The search results give you a perfect inventory of every .svg file reference in your project. Let’s break it down:

apps/010_introduction.py: Uses external-link.svg.
apps/030_roles.py: Uses rewind.svg.
server.py: Uses x-octagon.svg and arrow-up-circle.svg.
assets/images/ai-seo-software.svg: Contains self-referential text. This can be ignored.
assets/css/prism.css: A comment about .svg files. This can be ignored.

✅ Your Definitive “Keep” List

Based on this, you now have a clear action plan. The only Feather icons still in active use are:

external-link.svg
rewind.svg
x-octagon.svg
arrow-up-circle.svg

Your next step is to move these four files to a safe location (like a new assets/icons/ directory) and then you can confidently delete the entire assets/feather/ directory.

The Swaparoo: Pruning the Icon Garden

Me: Haha, so I’m on Linux and whenever you want temp there’s always /tmp so why not just give me the ol’ swaparoo set of CLI commands I can execute in sequence or use as a bash file. It’s a classic pattern.

Gemini: Here are the shell commands to perform the swap using the /tmp directory.

The Swaparoo Commands 🐧

This sequence safely moves your essential icons out, deletes the old directory, recreates a clean one, and moves your icons back into place.

# 1. Create a temporary holding folder for the good icons
mkdir /tmp/good_icons

# 2. Move the four essential icons to the temp folder
mv assets/feather/external-link.svg /tmp/good_icons/
mv assets/feather/rewind.svg /tmp/good_icons/
mv assets/feather/x-octagon.svg /tmp/good_icons/
mv assets/feather/arrow-up-circle.svg /tmp/good_icons/

# 3. Remove the entire old feather directory with all the unused icons
rm -rf assets/feather/

# 4. Recreate a clean, empty feather directory
mkdir assets/feather/

# 5. Move the good icons back from temp into their clean new home
mv /tmp/good_icons/* assets/feather/

# 6. Clean up the temporary directory
rm -rf /tmp/good_icons/

Committing the Change

After running those commands, you’ll want to commit the changes with a clear message.

# Stage all the changes (the deletions and the new files)
git add .

# Commit with a conventional commit message
git commit -m "refactor(assets): purge unused feather icons, keeping only four in use"

## Deleting 'Cruft' with a Recovery Bookmark

Throwing Caution To the Wind

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$ # 1. Create a temporary holding folder for the good icons
mkdir /tmp/good_icons

# 2. Move the four essential icons to the temp folder
mv assets/feather/external-link.svg /tmp/good_icons/
mv assets/feather/rewind.svg /tmp/good_icons/
mv assets/feather/x-octagon.svg /tmp/good_icons/
mv assets/feather/arrow-up-circle.svg /tmp/good_icons/

# 3. Remove the entire old feather directory with all the unused icons
rm -rf assets/feather/

# 4. Recreate a clean, empty feather directory
mkdir assets/feather/

# 5. Move the good icons back from temp into their clean new home
mv /tmp/good_icons/* assets/feather/

# 6. Clean up the temporary directory
rm -rf /tmp/good_icons/

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$ # Stage all the changes (the deletions and the new files)
git add .

# Commit with a conventional commit message
git commit -m "refactor(assets): purge unused feather icons, keeping only four in use"
[main 9b9a325] refactor(assets): purge unused feather icons, keeping only four in use
 283 files changed, 283 deletions(-)
 delete mode 100644 assets/feather/activity.svg
 delete mode 100644 assets/feather/airplay.svg
 delete mode 100644 assets/feather/alert-circle.svg
 delete mode 100644 assets/feather/alert-octagon.svg
 delete mode 100644 assets/feather/alert-triangle.svg
 delete mode 100644 assets/feather/align-center.svg
 delete mode 100644 assets/feather/align-justify.svg
 delete mode 100644 assets/feather/align-left.svg
 delete mode 100644 assets/feather/align-right.svg
 delete mode 100644 assets/feather/anchor.svg
 delete mode 100644 assets/feather/aperture.svg
 delete mode 100644 assets/feather/archive.svg
 delete mode 100644 assets/feather/arrow-down-circle.svg
 delete mode 100644 assets/feather/arrow-down-left.svg
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[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$ git push
Enumerating objects: 7, done.
Counting objects: 100% (7/7), done.
Delta compression using up to 48 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (4/4), done.
Writing objects: 100% (4/4), 516 bytes | 516.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 4 (delta 2), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0 (from 0)
remote: Resolving deltas: 100% (2/2), completed with 2 local objects.
To github.com:miklevin/pipulate
   09105d8..9b9a325  main -> main

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$

Gemini: Excellent. That’s a satisfying commit to see. You’ve successfully purged 283 unused icon files, significantly reducing the repository’s surface area. Your project is now lighter and cleaner, which will make searching and navigating much more efficient. ✨

Next Target: The `cruft/` Directory ✂️

With the icon situation sorted, the cruft/ directory is next on the list.

Since you want to be able to repo-dive for these files later, the key is to create a well-labeled commit right before you delete the directory. This acts as a permanent, searchable bookmark in your history.

Here is the recommended two-step process:

Create the “Bookmark” Commit: First, make a commit that explicitly states your intention. This creates the label you’ll search for in the future.
```
git commit --allow-empty -m "chore(repo): prepare for cruft/ directory removal"
```
- The --allow-empty flag lets you make a commit even if there are no code changes.
Delete the Directory and Commit: Now, perform the actual deletion and commit it as a separate step.
```
git rm -rf cruft/
git commit -m "refactor(repo): remove cruft/ directory"
```

This two-commit method makes future repo-diving incredibly simple. To find the files, you’ll just search your git log for the “prepare for cruft” message, and the contents of that directory will be perfectly preserved in the commit right before it.

The Recovery Spell: A Git Time Machine

Me:

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$ git commit --allow-empty -m "chore(repo): prepare for cruft/ directory removal"
[main ad66e5e] chore(repo): prepare for cruft/ directory removal

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$ vim .gitignore 

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$ git rm -rf cruft/
git commit -m "refactor(repo): remove cruft/ directory"
rm 'cruft/ANTI_PATTERN_GUIDE.md'
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rm 'cruft/THE_MCP_CHRONICLES.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/AI_DISCOVERY_NAVIGATION.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/AI_GOLDEN_PATH_EXECUTION_MATRIX.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/AI_HANDOFF_JACK_PUMPKINHEAD_BURR_GRINDING_COMPLETION.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/GOLDEN_PATH.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/ai_handoff_modular_mcp_tools_and_golden_path.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/ai_progressive_discovery_sequence.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/branches/CHANGELOG.md'
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rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/conversation_system/ai_conversation_vulnerability_fix_complete.md'
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rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/core_mcp_tools/ai_mcp_golden_path_complete_system.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/core_mcp_tools/ai_mcp_golden_path_quick_reference.md'
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rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/core_mcp_tools/ai_onboarding_guide.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/core_mcp_tools/ai_tool_discovery.py'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/development_patterns/ai_commit_conversation_integration.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/development_patterns/ai_iterative_loops_implementation_guide.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/development_patterns/ai_keychain_implementation_guide.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/development_patterns/ai_progressive_intelligence_hierarchy_mastery.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/development_patterns/ai_strange_loop_git_recovery_addendum.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/development_patterns/demo_keychain_usage.py'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/quick_start_for_ai_assistants.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/suspected_obsolete/ai_discussion_history_plugin.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/suspected_obsolete/ai_progressive_discovery.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/suspected_obsolete/ai_python_path_issue_analysis.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/suspected_obsolete/ai_restart_architecture_explanation.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/suspected_obsolete/ai_server_already_running_guidance.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/test_llm_body_chain_reaction.py'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/testing_debugging/ai_detective_implementation_guide.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/testing_debugging/ai_detective_real_world_example.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/testing_debugging/ai_deterministic_testing_complete_system.md'
rm 'cruft/ai_discovery/testing_debugging/ai_deterministic_testing_masterclass.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-01-07-conversation-history-overwrite-bug-fix.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-06-15-universal-api-pattern.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-06-16-uvicorn-high-speed-engine.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-06-17-ai-browser-automation-breakthrough.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-06-18-browser-automation-technical-details.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-06-19-browser-automation-workflow-patterns.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-06-23-living-readme-revolution.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-06-25-pipulate-philosophical-blueprint.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-07-02-backup-restore-architecture-revolution.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-07-21-blockingio-error-complete-resolution.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-07-21-comprehensive-demo-enhancement-summary.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-07-21-demo-comeback-integrated-success.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-07-21-demo-continuation-restored.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-07-21-demo-continuation-system-fully-working.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-07-21-demo-conversation-continuation-complete.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-07-21-demo-full-screen-enhancement.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-07-21-demo-system-redesign-complete.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-07-21-lightning-in-a-bottle-insights.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/2025-07-21-nuclear-safety-absolute-protection.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/ai_1_shot_session_hijacking_mastery.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/ai_browser_automation_mastery.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/ai_browser_embodiment_singularity.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/ai_chip_otheseus_memory_heart_architecture.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/ai_chip_otheseus_voice_integration_plan.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/ai_conversation_history_debugging_guide.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/ai_conversation_history_transparency_guide.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/ai_crud_regression_prevention_guide.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/ai_deterministic_trifecta_inheritance_mastery.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/ai_embodiment_demonstration.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/ai_magic_words_demonstration_protocol.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/ai_persistent_conversation_history_implementation.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/ai_session_hijacking_message.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/ai_session_hijacking_nexus_discovery.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/ai_session_hijacking_success_patterns.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/ai_static_initialization_constants.md'
rm 'cruft/archive/stale_progress_reports/database_safety_wrapper.py'
rm 'cruft/botify_workflow_patterns.md'
rm 'cruft/cleanup/automated_consolidation.py'
rm 'cruft/cleanup/bulletproof_consolidation.py'
rm 'cruft/cleanup/compare_function_implementations.sh'
rm 'cruft/cleanup/format_plugins.py'
rm 'cruft/cleanup/git_verify_consolidation.sh'
rm 'cruft/cleanup/install_static_library.py'
rm 'cruft/cleanup/pre_consolidation_verify.sh'
rm 'cruft/cleanup/safe_consolidation_workflow.sh'
rm 'cruft/cleanup/standardize_landing_pages.py'
rm 'cruft/cleanup/test_adaptive_transparency.py'
rm 'cruft/cleanup/test_mcp_tools_integration.sh'
rm 'cruft/cleanup/test_selenium.py'
rm 'cruft/cleanup/validate_aria_simple.py'
rm 'cruft/cleanup/verify_function_copies.sh'
rm 'cruft/considerations/2025-01-21-ai-burr-grinding-utilities-demo.md'
rm 'cruft/considerations/2025-01-21-ai-intelligent-pattern-analysis.md'
rm 'cruft/considerations/2025-06-12-bootstrap-paradox-solved.md'
rm 'cruft/considerations/2025-06-13-durable-vs-ephemeral.md'
rm 'cruft/considerations/2025-06-14-the-lens-stack.md'
rm 'cruft/considerations/2025-06-22-aria-accessibility-protection-strategy.md'
rm 'cruft/considerations/2025-06-26-revolutionary-testing-strategy.md'
rm 'cruft/considerations/2025-06-28-content-gap-analysis-lightning-in-a-bottle.md'
rm 'cruft/considerations/2025-07-21-critical-production-database-bug-fix.md'
rm 'cruft/considerations/2025-07-21-demo-dev-mode-safety-enhancement.md'
rm 'cruft/considerations/2025-07-21-demo-endpoint-message-suppression-success.md'
rm 'cruft/considerations/2025-07-21-milestone-database-fix-merged.md'
rm 'cruft/considerations/2025-07-21-production-database-emergency-fix-complete.md'
rm 'cruft/considerations/2025-07-21-regression-analysis-20250721.md'
rm 'cruft/demo_utils.py'
rm 'cruft/diagnostics/DIAGNOSTICS.md'
rm 'cruft/diagnostics/VALIDATION_REPORT.md'
rm 'cruft/diagnostics/diagnostic_conversation_loading.py'
rm 'cruft/diagnostics/final_conversation_persistence_verification.py'
rm 'cruft/experiment/iterate_ai.py'
rm 'cruft/extract_blog_posts.py'
rm 'cruft/generate_files_list.py'
rm 'cruft/git_tools/GIT_TOOLS.md'
rm 'cruft/git_tools/git-continue-wrapper.sh'
rm 'cruft/git_tools/git_dependencies.ipynb'
rm 'cruft/git_tools/git_simple_regression_finder.py'
rm 'cruft/git_tools/setup-git-aliases.sh'
rm 'cruft/git_tools/simple_cherry_pick.py'
rm 'cruft/git_tools/systematic_cherry_pick.py'
rm 'cruft/rebuild_trifecta_derivatives.sh'
rm 'cruft/recovery/RECOVERY.md'
rm 'cruft/recovery/backup_legacy/110_parameter_buster.py'
rm 'cruft/recovery/backup_legacy/120_link_graph.py'
rm 'cruft/recovery/patch_based_recovery.py'
rm 'cruft/recovery/recovered_cli.py'
rm 'cruft/recovery/regressions/cherry_picker.py'
rm 'cruft/recovery/regressions/compare_history.py'
rm 'cruft/recovery/regressions/failed_cherry_picks.log'
rm 'cruft/recovery/regressions/history_active.txt'
rm 'cruft/recovery/regressions/history_lost.txt'
rm 'cruft/recovery/regressions/regressions.log'
rm 'cruft/regression_prevention_demo_suite.py'
rm 'cruft/requirements-back.txt'
rm 'cruft/rules/00_PIPULATE_MASTER_GUIDE.mdc'
rm 'cruft/rules/01_CRITICAL_PATTERNS.mdc'
rm 'cruft/rules/02_CORE_CONCEPTS.mdc'
rm 'cruft/rules/03_SETUP_AND_DEPENDENCIES.mdc'
rm 'cruft/rules/04_WORKFLOW_DEVELOPMENT.mdc'
rm 'cruft/rules/05_UI_AND_FRONTEND.mdc'
rm 'cruft/rules/06_DATA_AND_AUTOMATION.mdc'
rm 'cruft/rules/07_INTEGRATIONS.mdc'
rm 'cruft/rules/08_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT.mdc'
rm 'cruft/rules/09_DEBUGGING.mdc'
rm 'cruft/rules/ALWAYS_IN_ALL_CAPS.md'
rm 'cruft/rules/BREADCRUMB_TRAIL.mdc'
rm 'cruft/rules/SQUARE_BRACKET_TOOL_CALLING.md'
rm 'cruft/simple_ai_interface.py'
rm 'cruft/tools_folder.md'
rm 'cruft/widget_conversion_guide.md'
[main fa8b4de] refactor(repo): remove cruft/ directory
 153 files changed, 47834 deletions(-)
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[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$

Gemini: And with that, the garden is officially weeded. That commit is a big one—another 153 files and nearly 48,000 lines of old notes, scripts, and documentation have been neatly pruned from your project’s current state. The repository is now significantly cleaner. 🧹

The real value of your two-commit approach isn’t the deletion itself, but the surgical precision it gives you for future repo-diving. You’ve created a perfect “archaeological layer” in your Git history.

The Recovery Spell: Resurrecting a File from `cruft/` 🪄

Here is the exact command sequence you would use if you ever needed to recover a specific file, for example cruft/PROMPT_FOO_TECHNIQUE.md.

Find the Bookmark Commit Search the Git log for the unique message you created.
```
git log --grep="prepare for cruft"
```
This will give you the commit hash. Let’s say it’s ad66e5e.
Travel Back in Time Check out the state of the repository one commit before your bookmark. The ~1 at the end does this. This is the moment right before you deleted anything.
```
# Use the hash from the previous step
git checkout ad66e5e~1
```
At this point, the entire cruft/ directory will magically reappear in your file system.
Recover the File Copy the specific file you need to a safe location outside the repository.
```
cp cruft/PROMPT_FOO_TECHNIQUE.md /tmp/
```
Return to the Present Jump back to the current state of your main branch.
```
git checkout main
```

The cruft/ directory will vanish again, but you’ll have the file you needed safe in /tmp. You’ve successfully performed a surgical extraction from the past without disturbing the present.

Final Pruning and a Tidy Conclusion

Me: Wow and I did that without even creating an experimental branch! Now any additional pruning that I do is actually stuff that I accidentally have around that has been orphaned or is unused dependencies or whatnot.

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$ eza --tree --git-ignore
.
├── __init__.py
├── AI_RUNME.py
├── apps
│   ├── 001_dom_visualizer.py
│   ├── 010_introduction.py
│   ├── 020_profiles.py
│   ├── 030_roles.py
│   ├── 040_hello_workflow.py
│   ├── 050_documentation.py
│   ├── 060_tasks.py
│   ├── 070_history.py
│   ├── 100_connect_with_botify.py
│   ├── 110_parameter_buster.py
│   ├── 120_link_graph.py
│   ├── 130_gap_analysis.py
│   ├── 200_workflow_genesis.py
│   ├── 210_widget_examples.py
│   ├── 220_roadmap.py
│   ├── 230_dev_assistant.py
│   ├── 240_simon_mcp.py
│   ├── 300_blank_placeholder.py
│   ├── 400_botify_trifecta.py
│   ├── 430_tab_opener.py
│   ├── 440_browser_automation.py
│   ├── 450_stream_simulator.py
│   ├── 510_text_field.py
│   ├── 520_text_area.py
│   ├── 530_dropdown.py
│   ├── 540_checkboxes.py
│   ├── 550_radios.py
│   ├── 560_range.py
│   ├── 570_switch.py
│   ├── 580_upload.py
│   ├── 610_markdown.py
│   ├── 620_mermaid.py
│   ├── 630_prism.py
│   ├── 640_javascript.py
│   ├── 710_pandas.py
│   ├── 720_rich.py
│   ├── 730_matplotlib.py
│   ├── 810_webbrowser.py
│   └── 820_selenium.py
├── assets
│   ├── css
│   │   ├── pico.css
│   │   ├── prism.css
│   │   └── roboto.css
│   ├── feather
│   │   ├── arrow-up-circle.svg
│   │   ├── external-link.svg
│   │   ├── rewind.svg
│   │   └── x-octagon.svg
│   ├── fonts
│   │   ├── Roboto-Black.ttf
│   │   ├── Roboto-Black.woff2
│   │   ├── Roboto-BlackItalic.woff
│   │   ├── Roboto-Bold.ttf
│   │   ├── Roboto-Bold.woff2
│   │   ├── Roboto-BoldItalic.woff
│   │   ├── Roboto-Italic.ttf
│   │   ├── Roboto-Italic.woff
│   │   ├── Roboto-Italic.woff2
│   │   ├── Roboto-Light.ttf
│   │   ├── Roboto-Light.woff2
│   │   ├── Roboto-LightItalic.woff
│   │   ├── Roboto-Medium.ttf
│   │   ├── Roboto-Medium.woff2
│   │   ├── Roboto-MediumItalic.woff
│   │   ├── Roboto-Regular.ttf
│   │   ├── Roboto-Regular.woff2
│   │   ├── Roboto-Thin.ttf
│   │   ├── Roboto-Thin.woff
│   │   └── Roboto-Thin.woff2
│   ├── images
│   │   ├── ai-seo-software.png
│   │   └── ai-seo-software.svg
│   ├── init.js
│   ├── installer
│   │   └── install.sh
│   ├── js
│   │   ├── fasthtml.js
│   │   ├── htmx.js
│   │   ├── marked.min.js
│   │   ├── mermaid.min.js
│   │   ├── prism.js
│   │   ├── script.js
│   │   ├── Sortable.js
│   │   ├── split.js
│   │   └── surreal.js
│   ├── oz-effect-demo.html
│   ├── pipulate-init.js
│   ├── pipulate.js
│   ├── prompts
│   │   ├── pipulate-context.xsd
│   │   └── system_prompt.md
│   ├── rich-table.css
│   ├── styles.css
│   ├── tests
│   │   └── demo.json
│   ├── theme.js
│   └── utils.js
├── browser_automation
│   ├── automation_recipes
│   │   ├── http_localhost_5001
│   │   │   ├── load_all_data_recipe.json
│   │   │   ├── profile_creation_recipe.json
│   │   │   └── save_all_data_recipe.json
│   │   └── README_SAVE_LOAD_AUTOMATION.md
│   ├── dom_processing
│   │   ├── dom_box_visualizer.py
│   │   └── dom_hierarchy_visualizer.py
│   ├── dom_schema_visualizer.py
│   ├── google_search_automation_demo.py
│   ├── google_search_example.py
│   ├── interactive_google_search.py
│   ├── recipe_executor.py
│   └── review_perception_history.py
├── cli.py
├── config.py
├── cruft
│   └── archive
│       └── stale_progress_reports
├── favicon.ico
├── flake.nix
├── imports
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── ai_dictdb.py
│   ├── ai_tool_discovery_simple_parser.py
│   ├── append_only_conversation.py
│   ├── ascii_displays.py
│   ├── botify
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── code_generators.py
│   │   └── true_schema_discoverer.py
│   ├── botify_code_generation.py
│   ├── crud.py
│   ├── dom_processing
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── ai_dom_beautifier.py
│   │   └── enhanced_dom_processor.py
│   ├── durable_backup_system.py
│   ├── mcp_orchestrator.py
│   ├── server_logging.py
│   ├── stream_orchestrator.py
│   └── voice_synthesis.py
├── LICENSE
├── logs
│   ├── needs_manual_review.log
│   ├── needs_manual_review_clean.log
│   ├── patch_recovery_conflicts.log
│   ├── patch_recovery_success.log
│   ├── server-1.log
│   ├── server-2.log
│   ├── server-3.log
│   ├── server-4.log
│   ├── server-5.log
│   ├── server-6.log
│   ├── server-7.log
│   ├── server-8.log
│   ├── server-9.log
│   ├── server-10.log
│   ├── server.log
│   ├── simple_cherry_pick_errors.log
│   └── systematic_cherry_pick_progress.log
├── prompt_foo.py
├── pyproject.toml
├── README.md
├── requirements.txt
├── scripts
│   ├── botify
│   │   ├── botify_api_bootcamp.md
│   │   ├── botify_api_examples.md
│   │   ├── hello_world_git_managed.ipynb
│   │   └── make_botify_docs.ipynb
│   ├── gsc
│   │   ├── generate_categories.py
│   │   ├── gsc_category_analysis.py
│   │   ├── gsc_keyworder.py
│   │   ├── gsc_page_query.ipynb
│   │   └── gsc_top_movers.py
│   ├── release
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── ai_commit.py
│   │   ├── publish.py
│   │   ├── RELEASE_GUIDE.md
│   │   ├── sync_ascii_art.py
│   │   └── version_sync.py
│   ├── takeover_main.sh
│   ├── vulture_whitelist.py
│   └── workflow
│       ├── create_workflow.py
│       ├── manage_class_attributes.py
│       ├── splice_workflow_step.py
│       ├── swap_workflow_step.py
│       ├── update_template_config.py
│       ├── WORKFLOW_DEVELOPMENT_GUIDE.md
│       └── workflow_reconstructor.py
├── server.py
└── tools
    ├── __init__.py
    ├── advanced_automation_tools.py
    ├── botify_tools.py
    ├── conversation_tools.py
    ├── keychain_tools.py
    ├── mcp_tools.py
    └── system_tools.py

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$ 

Gemini: That’s a great point. Now that the major cleanup is done, the rest is more like fine-tuning—finding things that were left behind or are no longer necessary. Looking at your file tree, a few items stand out as potential candidates for this next round of pruning.

Potential Pruning Targets 🧐

Here are a few files and folders that might be orphaned or redundant, based on common project structures. You’ll want to verify if they are still in use before deleting them.

assets/oz-effect-demo.html: Standalone HTML files in the assets directory are often old demos or experiments.
assets/pipulate-init.js and assets/pipulate.js: You also have a script.js and utils.js. It’s worth checking if these pipulate specific JS files are still used or if their functionality has been merged into the other files.
Google Search_automation_demo.py and Google Search_example.py: These look like demo or example scripts that may not be part of the core application.
prompt_foo.py: You mentioned tidying this up and promoting it. Is this a leftover copy from before the move?
__init__.py (in the root directory): Having an __init__.py in the root of a repository is unusual unless the entire repo is intended to be installable as a package. It might be a remnant from a previous project structure.

A Single Command to Verify

Instead of checking each file one by one, you can use rg to search for any reference to all of these files at once. This command searches for their filenames across the entire project.

rg -l 'oz-effect-demo.html|pipulate-init.js|pipulate.js|google_search_automation_demo|google_search_example|prompt_foo.py'

We use -l to get a clean list of files that contain references.
The | acts as an “OR”, so ripgrep will find any line that matches any of the filenames.
I’ve omitted the .py from the Python files to also catch any import statements that don’t include the extension (e.g., from prompt_foo import ...).

If this command returns no results, you can be much more confident that these files are truly orphaned and can be safely removed.

Me:

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$ rg -l 'oz-effect-demo.html|pipulate-init.js|pipulate.js|google_search_automation_demo|google_search_example|prompt_foo.py'
prompt_foo.py
server.py
README.md
assets/pipulate.js
browser_automation/google_search_example.py

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$ rg 'oz-effect-demo.html|pipulate-init.js|pipulate.js|google_search_automation_demo|google_search_example|prompt_foo.py'
prompt_foo.py
21:#    2. Run prompt_foo.py

server.py
2734:        // Initialize remaining chat functionality from pipulate.js
2743:    return (Script(src='/assets/pipulate.js'), Script(python_generated_init_script), Link(rel='stylesheet', href='/assets/styles.css'))
3993:            # Keyboard navigation now handled by external JavaScript in pipulate.js
4479:    # Enter/Shift+Enter handling is now externalized in pipulate.js
4480:    return Div(Card(H2(f'{APP_NAME} Chatbot'), Div(id='msg-list', cls='overflow-auto', style=msg_list_height, role='log', aria_label='Chat conversation', aria_live='polite'), Form(mk_chat_input_group(value='', autofocus=autofocus), onsubmit='sendSidebarMessage(event)', role='form', aria_label='Chat input form'), Script(init_script), Script(src='/assets/pipulate-init.js'), Script('initializeChatInterface();')), id='chat-interface', role='complementary', aria_label='AI Assistant Chat')

README.md
1077:    │   └── prompt_foo.py          # Bundles XML code payloads for massive 1-shot AI prompts

browser_automation/google_search_example.py
15:    python google_search_example.py "AI automation tools"

assets/pipulate.js
135:    console.log('SSE handlers initialized (WebSocket handled by pipulate-init.js)');

[mike@nixos:~/repos/pipulate]$

The __init__.py on root is part of a release system to make a single source of truth for PyPI releases but I think I may rename that or consolidate it into something else to get rid of the weirdness. Those JS files on assets/js/ root (not in subsequent subfolders) are (mostly?) used and is an intentional Pipulate convention to differentiate original-source JS libraries I don’t touch from those at that upper level that I do actively edit as unique JS in the Pipulate project. Then there’s stuff in the scripts/ directory that are intended to be used but currently broken because of the renaming from helpers/. I have to fix those and wrap them in official MCP-like tool-calls by the system. That way I can have standalone scripts and also easy interfaces to them under the web app. And prompt_foo.py bundles select portions of the codebase into XML payloads for 1-shot submits to models like you through the ChatBot Web UI.

Gemini: Based on your search results and explanations, the pruning list is now very clear and short.

Analysis of Findings

oz-effect-demo.html: The search returned no results for this file. It’s an orphan and safe to delete. ✅
pipulate.js & pipulate-init.js: server.py explicitly loads both of these scripts. They are actively in use and should be kept.
Google Search_example.py: This file is referenced by Google Search_automation_demo.py.
Google Search_automation_demo.py: This file references the Google Search_example.py but is not referenced by anything else. It appears to be an unused demo script. ✅
prompt_foo.py: This is referenced in your README.md and server.py as part of your AI workflow. It should be kept.

Final Cleanup Commands 🧹

This leaves you with just two files to safely remove.

# 1. Remove the unused HTML demo and Python automation script
rm assets/oz-effect-demo.html
rm browser_automation/google_search_automation_demo.py

# 2. Stage the deletions and commit the change
git add .
git commit -m "chore(repo): remove orphaned demo and automation files"

With that, your main weeding and pruning phase is complete. You’ve successfully decluttered the repository, established clear conventions for your JS files and scripts, and practiced a safe, verifiable method for removing orphaned code.

Me: And I’m actually going to leave both of those in place for reminding me of stuff. And with that, it’s a wrap! Thanks, Gemini. Wanna close out the article with any parting shouts?

Gemini: Of course. Here’s a closing thought for your article.

It’s been a pleasure being a part of this repo-gardening session. We’ve journeyed from a “Time Lord regeneration” of the main branch to a surgical pruning of the repository’s furthest corners.

What stands out isn’t just the hundreds of files deleted, but the deliberate craftsmanship behind each step. By combining powerful command-line tools like rg with disciplined Git practices like Conventional Commits and “bookmarking,” you’ve turned a simple cleanup into a masterclass in maintaining a clean, navigable, and historically rich codebase.

The garden is now tidy, the tools are sharper, and the foundation is stronger than ever. Here’s to the next chapter of building on this clean slate. Happy coding! ✨

Book Analysis

Ai Editorial Take

This is an outstanding technical entry that masterfully blends a high-level philosophy (‘repo gardening’) with low-level, practical command-line execution. Its real strength lies in transforming a mundane task—deleting old files—into a lesson on responsible and recoverable version control. The author’s methodical approach, from investigation (rg) to safe execution (/tmp swap) and historical preservation (bookmark commits), provides a powerful blueprint for professional software maintenance. This entry is a prime candidate for a chapter in a book on modern, AI-assisted development workflows, as it perfectly showcases how to maintain control and craftsmanship while leveraging powerful tools.

Title Brainstorm

Title Option: Repo Gardening: A Guide to Surgical Git History
- Filename: git-repo-gardening-surgical-history
- Rationale: This title is metaphorical, practical, and accurately reflects the core skill being taught: surgically manipulating Git history for maintenance.
Title Option: The Art of the Pruning: A Git Workflow for a Cleaner Repo
- Filename: git-workflow-cleaner-repo
- Rationale: Focuses on the ‘why’ (a cleaner repo) and frames the process as a craft or ‘art’, which aligns with the author’s tone.
Title Option: Git Archaeology: Deleting Files While Preserving the Past
- Filename: git-archaeology-deleting-files
- Rationale: Highlights the most powerful concept in the entry—the ability to recover deleted files, which is a key takeaway for readers.
Title Option: Command-Line Craftsmanship: Weeding Your Git Garden
- Filename: command-line-git-gardening
- Rationale: Emphasizes the tools used (rg, git CLI) and the ‘craftsmanship’ philosophy that runs through the author’s narrative.

Content Potential And Polish

Core Strengths:
- The entry provides a complete, self-contained tutorial on a sophisticated but highly practical Git workflow.
- It successfully demystifies advanced concepts like Conventional Commits and history diving by grounding them in a real-world task.
- The ‘bookmarking’ and ‘recovery spell’ sections are exceptionally clear and provide immense value, addressing a common developer fear of losing work.
- The conversational, learn-as-you-go format with an AI assistant is engaging and makes complex command-line operations feel accessible.
Suggestions For Polish:
- Consider adding a small section explaining the git rm -rf command versus a simple rm -rf and git add ., as this can be a point of confusion for learners.
- The transition from pruning icons to pruning the ‘cruft’ directory could be slightly smoother, perhaps with a concluding sentence after the icon deletion commit.
- For a book format, a visual diagram showing the Git timeline before and after the ‘bookmark’ and ‘delete’ commits would be highly effective.

Next Step Prompts

Based on the ‘Recovery Spell’ section, generate a standalone, reusable bash script named git-recover.sh that takes a commit message grep pattern and a filename as arguments to automate the file recovery process.
Expand the section on Conventional Commits into a more comprehensive style guide. Create a markdown document that lists all major commit types, provides good and bad examples for each, and explains how they would impact automated semantic versioning.