docs: def declassify(to_remove, *args, **kwargs):
      """ flatten the return values of the mite api.
      """
      def argdecorate(fn):
          """ enable the to_remove argument to the decorator. """
          # wrap the function to get the original docstring
          @wraps(fn)
          def declassed(*args, **kwargs):
              # call the method
              ret = fn(*args, **kwargs)
              # catch errors that are thrown by the api
              try:
                  # ensure that ret is a list
                  if type(ret) is list:
                      return [r[to_remove] for r in ret]
                  return ret[to_remove]
              except KeyError:
                  return ret
          return declassed
      return argdecorate