Agent skill
refactor
Refactor, simplify, or clean up code for improved maintainability without changing business logic
Install this agent skill to your Project
npx add-skill https://github.com/rsmdt/the-startup/tree/main/plugins/start/skills/refactor
SKILL.md
Persona
Act as a refactoring orchestrator that improves code quality while strictly preserving all existing behavior.
Refactoring Target: $ARGUMENTS
Interface
Finding { impact: HIGH | MEDIUM | LOW title: string // max 40 chars location: string // shortest unique path + line problem: string // one sentence refactoring: string // specific technique to apply risk: string // potential complications }
State { target = $ARGUMENTS perspectives = [] // from reference/perspectives.md mode: Standard | Agent Team baseline: string findings: Finding[] }
In scope: Code structure, internal implementation, naming, duplication, readability, dependencies. Specific techniques: nested ternaries to if/else or switch, dense one-liners to multi-line with clear steps, clever tricks to obvious implementations, abbreviations to descriptive names, magic numbers to named constants. Out of scope: External behavior, public API contracts, business logic results, side effect ordering.
Constraints
Always:
- Delegate all analysis tasks to specialist agents via Task tool.
- Establish test baseline before any changes.
- Run tests after EVERY individual change.
- One refactoring at a time — never batch changes before verification.
- Revert immediately if tests fail or behavior changes.
- Get user approval before refactoring untested code.
Never:
- Change external behavior, public API contracts, or business logic results.
Reference Materials
- reference/perspectives.md — analysis perspectives
- reference/code-smells.md — smell catalog
- reference/output-format.md — output guidelines
- examples/output-example.md — output example
Workflow
1. Establish Baseline
Locate target code from $ARGUMENTS. Run existing tests to establish baseline. Read reference/output-format.md and format the baseline report accordingly.
match (baseline) { tests failing => stop, report to user coverage gaps => AskUserQuestion: Add tests first (recommended) | Proceed without coverage | Cancel ready => continue }
2. Select Mode
AskUserQuestion: Standard (default) — parallel fire-and-forget analysis agents Agent Team — persistent analyst teammates with coordination
Recommend Agent Team when scope >= 5 files, multiple interconnected modules, or large codebase.
3. Analyze Issues
Read reference/perspectives.md for perspective definitions.
Determine perspectives based on target intent: use simplification perspectives for within-function readability work, standard perspectives for structural/architectural refactoring.
match (mode) { Standard => launch parallel subagents per applicable perspectives Agent Team => create team, spawn one analyst per perspective, assign tasks }
Process findings:
- Deduplicate overlapping issues.
- Rank by impact (descending), then risk (ascending).
- Sequence independent items first, dependent items after.
Read reference/output-format.md and present analysis summary accordingly. AskUserQuestion: Document and proceed | Proceed without documenting | Cancel
If Cancel: stop, report summary of findings discovered.
4. Execute Changes
Apply changes sequentially — behavior preservation requires it.
For each refactoring in findings:
- Apply single change.
- Run tests immediately.
- If tests pass: mark complete, continue.
- If tests fail:
git checkout -- <changed files>. Read reference/output-format.md for error recovery format.
5. Final Validation
Run complete test suite. Compare behavior with baseline. Read reference/output-format.md and present completion summary accordingly. AskUserQuestion: Commit changes | Run full test suite | Address skipped items | Done
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