Charon — Development skill for Claude Code

Charon

**Charon** is a single-file audit-and-resolution prompt for [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) that finds dead code, unused files, unused dependencies, and duplicated code in your repository. Then, in the mode you choose, it removes the confirmed dead through independently reviewed, build-verified change-sets on a branch you merge yourself.

The name is the job description: Charon identifies what has died in a codebase and ferries it out, but only what has been proven dead, only past an independent reviewer, and only across a branch boundary you control.

Charon works entirely on its own in any repository, but it really shines in combination with [Phanes](https://github.com/Aloim/phanes): in a Phanes-managed project the audit reads the agent team's registries, removals flow through the project's own Critic → Executor review chain, and the report is filed straight into the Phanes documentation tree (see [Works with Phanes](#works-with-phanes)).

**Why bother?** Dead and duplicated code is not just clutter; it actively degrades AI-assisted development. Agents read it, index it, imitate it, and route new work onto APIs that nothing uses anymore. A codebase that is honest about its dead is a codebase your tools can reason about.

**Contents**

• What it does
• What it will never do without you
• How to install
• How to use
• Reading the report
• Works with Phanes
• Version · License

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What it does

Running `/charon` in a project drives Claude Code through two strictly separated loops:

1. Mode question. At initialization Charon asks once (or reads it from your arguments): AUTORESOLVE executes every clean removal candidate automatically after the audit; APPROVE-FIRST stops at the report and executes only the findings you select.
2. Survey. Detects your languages, build sys