Lazy Element

Apply refactorings

Symptom

A class, function, or namespace whose body the agent traces through only to find no decisions or transformations — every hop is pure overhead in reasoning context.

Goal

Trivial wrappers disappear; the call site reads exactly as what's happening and the agent skips the indirection.

Smellier version

function getName(user) {
  return user.name;
}
const n = getName(user);

Fresher version

const n = user.name;

Example source: Illustrative example written for this site, not a quotation from any source.

Pressure

The agent navigates through layers that add nothing; future maintainers (human or agent) face a choice between leaving dead weight or extracting a real reason for it.

Tradeoff

Inlining scatters the wrapper's body across call sites; if the wrapper was a seam (mocking boundary, extension point), removing it forecloses options the agent might need later.

Relief

Shorter call chains; the agent loads one fewer definition per reasoning step; the call site reads as exactly what's happening.

Trap

Mechanically inlining everything that looks trivial — including wrappers that mark a real seam — collapses extension points the agent will need to re-introduce later at higher cost.