Show Notes
Boris (creator of Claude Code) just open-sourced the Simplifier agent. Here's what I found digging through the source, and what it teaches you about building your own plugins.
How to Install It
In a Claude Code session, follow Boris's instructions to add the plugin. Once it's running, you can read the source yourself.
Where to Find the Source
Navigate to your Claude Code directory:
~/.claude/plugins/
Inside plugins/, you'll see all the official ones. The Simplifier agent lives under agents/.
What's in the Plugin
The structure is pretty revealing if you're trying to build your own:
Front matter:
- Name
- Description
- Model (you can tweak this)
Sections:
- Preserve the functionality — Important because sometimes the AI will delete stuff. This tells it not to.
- Apply the project standards — References your
CLAUDE.mdfor coding style preferences. - Enhancing clarity — General cleanup rules.
The length of this plugin is a good reference point. Now you know how detailed Anthropic thinks these should be.
My First Run
I gave it two simple pages — one static, one dynamic. It ran for about 5 minutes.
What I liked: It refactored a Promise.all pattern for fetching repository info on my website. Clean improvement.
What felt like overkill: Some changes felt like code golf — looking for stuff to simplify when there wasn't much to do. That's probably because I gave it simple code.
How I'd Use This
This makes sense as a hook in your workflow. After a batch of changes, run the Simplifier to clean things up before committing. Think of it as automated code review for clarity.
Links
- Follow Boris Cherny on X/Twitter (Claude Code creator updates)
- Claude Code GitHub Repository (plugins and source code)
- Vibe with AI Discord (developer community)