no-dead-branches

Disallow if/ternary/while statements with literal conditions that create dead branches

Category: Dead Code | Tier: Pro

Why This Matters

AI generates conditional branches that can never execute -- duplicate conditions, contradictory checks, or branches after exhaustive matches. Dead branches bloat the code and mislead readers about possible program states.

Bad Code

// Branch can never be reached
const status = 'active';
if (status === 'active') {
  activate();
} else if (status === 'active') {
  // duplicate -- dead code
}

Good Code

// Each branch is reachable and meaningful
if (status === 'active') {
  activate();
} else if (status === 'inactive') {
  deactivate();
}

Configuration

This rule has no configuration options. It is enabled by default in lintmyai:recommended.