diff --git a/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/codemod/remove_all_unused_functions b/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/codemod/remove_all_unused_functions
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..fcc384ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/codemod/remove_all_unused_functions
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+function error_handler() {
+  >&2 echo "Exited with BAD EXIT CODE '${2}' in ${0} script at line: ${1}."
+  exit "$2"
+}
+trap 'error_handler ${LINENO} $?' ERR
+set -o errtrace -o errexit -o nounset
+
+# HELP: remove all unused functions from python files
+
+if ! command -v dead >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+  echo "dead is not installed. installing..."
+  echo "pip install dead"
+fi
+
+list_of_unused_things="$(dead | grep -E '^[a-z].*is never read')"
+
+while read -r line; do
+  function_name="$(echo "$line" | awk '{print $1}')"
+  echo "function_name: ${function_name}"
+  file_name_and_line_number="$(echo "$line" | perl -p -e "s/.*is never read, defined in //g")"
+  file_name="$(echo "$file_name_and_line_number" | awk -F ':' '{print $1}')"
+  echo "trying to remove $function_name from: ${file_name}"
+  if python bin/codemod/update_file_to_remove_function.py "$file_name" "$function_name"; then
+    # TODO: run exhaustive tests, and if they pass, report success
+    echo "function ${function_name} removed from ${file_name}. yay!"
+    exit 0
+  fi
+done <<< "$list_of_unused_things"
diff --git a/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/codemod/update_file_to_remove_function.py b/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/codemod/update_file_to_remove_function.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..9362fabb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/codemod/update_file_to_remove_function.py
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+from bowler import Query
+from bowler.types import Leaf
+
+# This came about because vulture (actually dead, from the list of Similar programs at https://pypi.org/project/vulture/)
+# actually found unused stuff, and I wanted to remove it.
+# See also https://github.com/craigds/decrapify
+
+def remove_function(filename: str, function_name: str) -> None:
+
+    def remove_statement(node, capture, filename):
+        node.remove()
+
+    bowler_query = (Query(filename)
+        .select_function(function_name)
+        .modify(remove_statement)
+        .execute(write=True))
+
+    if len(bowler_query.exceptions) > 0:
+        print(f"Failed to remove function {function_name} from {filename}.")
+        raise Exception(bowler_query.exceptions[0])
+
+    print(f"Function {function_name} successfully removed from {filename}.")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    import argparse
+
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Remove a function from a Python file while preserving comments.")
+    parser.add_argument("filename", help="the file to modify")
+    parser.add_argument("function_name", help="the name of the function to remove")
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+
+    remove_function(args.filename, args.function_name)