--- title: I stopped asking AI to build features and started asking... description: AI coding tools make it trivially easy to add features, but that ease creates a hidden problem: codebases that grow bloated, tangled, and hard to reason about.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-stopped-asking-ai-to-build-features-and-started-asking-it-to-remove-code-o1bsaeeic twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I stopped asking AI to build features and started asking it to remove code | daily.dev og:description: AI coding tools make it trivially easy to add features, but that ease creates a hidden problem: codebases that grow bloated, tangled, and hard to reason about.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-stopped-asking-ai-to-build-features-and-started-asking-it-to-remove-code-o1bsaeeic og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/O1BSaEEiC.png og:image:alt: I stopped asking AI to build features and started asking it to remove code og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I stopped asking AI to build features and started asking it to remove code **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary AI coding tools make it trivially easy to add features, but that ease creates a hidden problem: codebases that grow bloated, tangled, and hard to reason about. The author's key insight is to treat deletion as a deliberate, recurring step — periodically prompting the AI to identify dead functions, unused imports, and duplicated logic rather than always asking it to build more. Simple prompts like 'what can be removed without changing how the app behaves?' surface cleanup opportunities the model would never volunteer on its own. Checking whether a feature already exists before writing new code is another habit that prevents redundant duplication. The core argument is that lean, understandable code is more valuable than a large codebase, and that AI's default bias toward addition must be actively counteracted. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The cleanup cost of AI-generated code](https://daily.dev/posts/the-cleanup-cost-of-ai-generated-code-hgutgmlbk) · The New Stack · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI-Assisted Unused & Dead Code Removal](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-assisted-unused-dead-code-removal-dmk06stqs) · Foojay.io · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding), [#technical-debt](https://daily.dev/tags/technical-debt), [#vibe-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/vibe-coding) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-stopped-asking-ai-to-build-features-and-started-asking-it-to-remove-code-o1bsaeeic) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I stopped asking AI to build features and started asking it to remove code","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-stopped-asking-ai-to-build-features-and-started-asking-it-to-remove-code-o1bsaeeic","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-stopped-asking-ai-to-build-features-and-started-asking-it-to-remove-code-o1bsaeeic"},"datePublished":"2026-07-31T19:32:50.580Z","dateModified":"2026-07-31T23:55:05.460Z","description":"AI coding tools make it trivially easy to add features, but that ease creates a hidden problem: codebases that grow bloated, tangled, and hard to reason about....","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/12564ead69395e808e8cd2e38f50ea3d?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/12564ead69395e808e8cd2e38f50ea3d?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"XDA Developers","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"XDA Developers","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kCg6yyAP--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774964407/logos/xda-developers?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-stopped-asking-ai-to-build-features-and-started-asking-it-to-remove-code-o1bsaeeic","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai-coding,technical-debt,vibe-coding","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"XDA Developers","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"I stopped asking AI to build features and started asking it to remove code"}]} ```