Refactor, simplify, or clean up code for improved maintainability without changing business logic
Scanned 9/6/2026
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---
name: refactor
description: Refactor, simplify, or clean up code for improved maintainability without changing business logic
user-invocable: true
argument-hint: "describe what code needs refactoring and why"
---
## 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.
- 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:
1. Deduplicate overlapping issues.
2. Rank by impact (descending), then risk (ascending).
3. 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:
1. Apply single change.
2. Run tests immediately.
3. If tests pass: mark complete, continue.
4. 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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