DELSCOUT: Static-First Code Deletion Scheduling for Finite Verification Budgets

A new arXiv paper (2608.04611) addresses the problem of redundant code removal in AI-assisted software development, where execution-verification capacity is limited. The authors propose a scheduling framework called DELSCOUT that ranks single-statement deletion candidates and uses an execution suite to accept the first passing candidate, bounded by a budget. The central insight is that candidate order, rather than model confidence, is the controllable factor. DELSCOUT implements two schedules: one that spends three of five slots on deterministic shortest-first candidates and two on complementary learned proposals, given representative target-domain validation. The paper contrasts with additive 'vibe coding' practices, where code accumulates faster than it is removed. The research is relevant to software maintainability and AI code generation, though it is not directly related to contemporary art.