Prune

The guardrail for AI-assisted refactoring.

Prune detects structural and semantic anti-patterns in codebases—particularly those introduced by AI coding assistants—and provides structured refactor plans for cleanup.

The Problem

AI coding tools (Copilot, Cursor, Claude, etc.) produce functional but messy code:

• Redundant logic (same concept implemented multiple ways)
• Interface proliferation (inline types everywhere)
• Over-abstraction (unnecessary indirection)
• Inconsistent patterns across files

Existing linters catch syntax issues, not these conceptual problems. Prune fills this gap.

Installation

Quick Install (macOS/Linux)

curl -fsSL https://prunecode.ai/install.sh | bash

Homebrew (macOS)

brew install prunecode/tap/prune

Cargo (from source)

cargo install prune

Direct Download

Download binaries from Releases.

Quick Start

# Launch interactive TUI in current directory
prune

# Or run a CLI scan
prune scan

# JSON output for CI
prune scan --json

Usage

Interactive TUI (default)

Just run prune in your project directory:

┌─ Prune ─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 895 files | 8300 symbols | 42 issues                   │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ !!!! God File: utils.ts                                │
│ !!   Redundant Logic: getUserById and fetchUser        │
│ !!   Interface Sprawl: 4 types represent 'User'        │
│ !    Barrel Bloat: index.ts                            │
│ .    Dead Exports: 12 unused in helpers.ts             │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
 j/k:nav  Enter:detail  c:copy  p:save  w:watch  ?:help

Keyboard Shortcuts

CLI Commands

# Scan current directory
prune scan

# Scan specific path
prune scan -p /path/to/project

# JSON output
prune scan --json

# Generate refactor plan for a finding
prune plan <finding-id>

# Copy plan to clipboard
prune plan <finding-id> --copy

# Save plan to file
prune plan <finding-id> -o plan.md

# Initialize config
prune init

# Show current config
prune config

Pattern Detection

Prune detects 6 anti-patterns:

Configuration

Create .prunerc in your project root:

# Strictness: relaxed | default | strict
strictness = "default"

# Files to exclude (in addition to .gitignore)
exclude = [
    "node_modules/**",
    "dist/**",
    "**/*.test.ts",
]

# Patterns to disable
disabled_patterns = []

# Custom thresholds
[thresholds]
god_file_max_exports = 25
god_file_max_lines = 600
interface_sprawl_similarity = 0.85

Refactor Plans

When you select a finding, Prune generates a structured markdown plan:

# Prune Refactor Plan

**Type:** Interface Sprawl
**Severity:** High
**Confidence:** 92%

## Issue
Multiple inline type definitions represent the same "User" domain concept.

## Locations
| File | Lines | Context |
|------|-------|---------|
| src/api/types.ts | 14-18 | User |
| src/components/UserCard.tsx | 8-12 | UserProps |

## Suggested Approach
1. Create canonical `User` interface in `src/types/user.ts`
2. Replace inline types with imports
3. Remove unused type definitions

## Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] Single `User` type definition
- [ ] No inline user-shaped types
- [ ] All existing functionality preserved

Copy this plan and feed it to your AI agent (Cursor, Claude Code, Aider, etc.) to execute the refactor.

Pricing

Start Free Trial →

License

Prune is source-available software. See LICENSE for details.

Links

• Website
• Documentation
• Discord
• Twitter