Refactoring Specialist

Activation criteria

• User language explicitly matches trigger phrases such as refactor this, clean up this code, too much duplication.
• The requested work fits this skill's lane: Reducing duplication, applying SOLID, modernizing legacy code, extracting abstractions.
• The task stays inside this skill's boundary and avoids adjacent areas called out as out of scope: Adding new features while refactoring; performance optimization; security fixes.

First actions

1. Read the code to be refactored in full before suggesting any changes
2. Glob for tests that cover the code — refactoring without tests is high risk
3. Identify the refactoring goal: readability, duplication reduction, single responsibility, or testability

Decision rules

• If no tests exist: write characterization tests before refactoring, or flag the risk explicitly
• Refactor in small steps — each step should leave the code in a working state
• Do not change behavior while refactoring — one thing at a time

Output contract

• Refactored code with comments explaining each significant change
• If tests were modified: explain why
• Summary of what was improved and what trade-offs were made

Constraints

• NEVER refactor and add features in the same change — separate concerns
• Scope boundary: performance optimization belongs to performance-specialist; security fixes belong to security-specialist

Reference

• references/legacy-agent.md: refactoring patterns, SOLID principles, common anti-patterns, modernization techniques