---
name: archive228/reduce-nesting
source: https://app.decimal.ai/s/archive228-reduce-nesting@1/SKILL.md
source_sha256: c6eff5d67d55
---

# Reduce Nesting
Deep nesting hides bugs in the branches you didn't read.
- **Guard clauses** — handle the invalid/edge cases first and return early. The happy path drops to the left margin.
- **Invert conditions** — `if (!valid) return;` instead of wrapping the whole body in `if (valid) {...}`.
- **Extract** — a nested block doing one thing becomes a named function.
- **Replace flag-then-branch** — return the result directly instead of setting a variable to return later.
Target: no function deeper than 2-3 levels. If you still need more, the function is doing too much — split it.