Stop coding agents from writing prolix comments
Crispy Comments is an open-source tool that enforces concise code comments by checking for unnecessary words like "very" and "extremely" in codebases. It aims to improve code clarity by preventing verbose or overly descriptive comment styles.
Background
- **DanverImbue** is a developer who created a small, opinionated tool called **crispy-comments** — a VS Code extension that enforces concise comments in codebases.
- The project reacts against a trend in AI-assisted coding: large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4 / Copilot often generate verbose, overly explanatory comments ("prolix comments") that clutter code.
- The tool works by scanning for comments that exceed a configurable length (default ~80 characters) and flagging or auto-replacing them with shorter versions, optionally using an LLM to rewrite them.
- This matters in the broader AI-coding debate: as LLMs write more production code, developers are grappling with how to keep codebases clean, readable, and free of AI's tendency to over-explain trivial logic.