⌘ /refactor

---

description: Restructure code to improve quality without changing behavior disable-model-invocation: false

Improve code structure, readability, and maintainability without changing external behavior.

Process

Use the refactoring skill from bushido to:

1. Ensure tests exist: Must have tests before refactoring (if not, add them first)
2. Identify code smell: What needs improvement?
3. Plan refactoring: What pattern/structure would be better?
4. Make one change: Small, focused refactorings
5. Run tests: Verify behavior unchanged
6. Repeat: Continue with next improvement
7. Review: Apply code-reviewer skill to final result

Refactoring Golden Rules

Safety first:

• ✅ Tests exist and pass before starting
• ✅ Make one change at a time
• ✅ Run tests after each change
• ✅ Behavior must remain unchanged
• ✅ Commit after each successful refactoring

When to refactor:

• Code is hard to understand
• Duplication exists
• Functions are too long
• Classes have too many responsibilities
• Complexity is high

When NOT to refactor:

• No tests exist (add tests first)
• Under time pressure (defer to later)
• External behavior needs to change (that's not refactoring)

Common Refactorings

Extract Function:

// Before
function processOrder(order) {
  const tax = order.subtotal * 0.08
  const shipping = order.items.length > 5 ? 0 : 9.99
  const total = order.subtotal + tax + shipping
  return total
}

// After
function processOrder(order) {
  const tax = calculateTax(order.subtotal)
  const shipping = calculateShipping(order.items)
  return order.subtotal + tax + shipping
}

function calculateTax(subtotal) {
  return subtotal * 0.08
}

function calculateShipping(items) {
  return items.length > 5 ? 0 : 9.99
}

Eliminate Duplication:

// Before
function formatUserName(user) {
  return `${user.firstName} ${user.lastName}`
}

function formatAuthorName(author) {
  return `${author.firstName} ${author.lastName}`
}

// After
function formatFullName(person) {
  return `${person.firstName} ${person.lastName}`
}

Simplify Conditionals:

// Before
if (user.role === 'admin' || user.role === 'moderator' || user.role === 'super_admin') {
  // ...
}

// After
const PRIVILEGED_ROLES = ['admin', 'moderator', 'super_admin']

if (PRIVILEGED_ROLES.includes(user.role)) {
  // ...
}

Examples

When the user says:

• "This function is too long and hard to understand"
• "Clean up this messy code"
• "Remove duplication between these modules"
• "Simplify this nested if/else logic"
• "Break this god class into smaller pieces"

Refactoring Workflow

# 1. Ensure tests pass
npm test

# 2. Make ONE refactoring change
# (extract function, rename, remove duplication, etc.)

# 3. Run tests again
npm test

# 4. Commit
git add .
git commit -m "refactor: extract calculateTax function"

# 5. Repeat for next change

Output Format

After refactoring:

## Refactoring: [Brief description]

### Before
[Description of code smell or issue]

### Changes Made
- [Change 1 with reasoning]
- [Change 2 with reasoning]
- [Change 3 with reasoning]

### After
[How the code is better now]

### Verification
[Evidence that behavior unchanged - use proof-of-work skill]
- All tests pass: [test output]
- No functionality changed
- Code is more [readable/maintainable/simple]

Notes

• Use TodoWrite to track refactoring steps
• Apply boy-scout-rule skill (leave code better than found)
• Apply simplicity-principles skill (KISS, YAGNI)
• Apply structural-design-principles as appropriate
• Use proof-of-work skill to verify tests still pass
• Commit after each successful refactoring
• If tests don't exist, use /test command first