refactor-project_skill

Overview

This skill runs a fully automated, project-wide refactor using the code-simplifier agent to improve clarity, consistency, and maintainability across the entire codebase. It performs aggressive, cross-file changes focused on deduplication, removing legacy cruft, and enforcing code-quality patterns. The process is immediate and relies on git as the safety net for rollbacks.

How this skill works

The skill first scans the repository to identify source files, languages, and main directories and then displays a scope summary. It immediately launches a refactoring subagent (refactor:code-simplifier) in aggressive mode, which loads best-practice rules, analyzes frameworks and libraries, and applies cross-file improvements automatically. After refactoring, it produces a concise summary of changes, files touched, and recommended tests, plus a git rollback command.

When to use it

• When you want a fast, comprehensive cleanup across an entire repository
• When reducing duplication and enforcing consistent patterns project-wide
• To remove legacy compatibility hacks and unused code at scale
• Before a major release to improve maintainability and readability
• When you trust git rollback as the safety mechanism for reverting changes

Best practices

• Run on a clean working tree and commit or stash uncommitted work before starting
• Review the scope summary to understand the breadth of changes before examining diffs
• Run test suites and CI after refactor to validate behavior preservation
• Group reviews logically by module or feature to make changes easier to audit
• Use git reset --hard HEAD to rollback quickly if undesired changes appear

Example use cases

• Large monorepo with duplicated utility functions consolidated into shared modules
• Legacy application cleanup: remove backward-compat hacks and dead exports
• Standardizing naming conventions and file organization across multiple services
• Applying organization-wide code-quality standards and patterns automatically
• Preparing a codebase for onboarding by simplifying and documenting common patterns