architecture-migration

architecture-migration is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from garrettw/php-arch-skills. It costs 42 tokens per session (1,182 once invoked), scanned A, original, MPL-2.0.

A guide for gradually moving a legacy PHP application toward a cleaner structure while it continues to run. It covers the Strangler Fig approach, which replaces old parts step by step, plus tests and temporary compatibility code.

In plain words
What is it for?
Refactoring code while adding features or fixing complex bugs, splitting work into vertical slices, recording current behavior with tests, and removing old code after the replacement is ready.
Why use it?
It reduces the risk of a large rewrite that takes too long and delays product work.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

Good fit Refactoring code while adding features or fixing complex bugs, splitting work into vertical slices, recording current behavior with tests, and removing old code after the replacement is ready.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/garrettw/php-arch-skills/architecture-migration
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add garrettw/php-arch-skills --skill architecture-migration
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/garrettw/php-arch-skills

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for architecture-migration

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/garrettw/php-arch-skills/architecture-migration/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/garrettw/php-arch-skills/architecture-migration)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/garrettw/php-arch-skills/architecture-migration"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/garrettw/php-arch-skills/architecture-migration/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for architecture-migration

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/garrettw/php-arch-skills/architecture-migration"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/garrettw/php-arch-skills/architecture-migration.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 42 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,182 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00042 $0.01182
Opus 5 $0.00021 $0.00591
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00236
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00118

Measured 8d ago against content hash 485941293e67, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

architecture-migration scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 8d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/architecture-migration/SKILL.md · 59 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 59 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Incremental Architecture Migration for PHP Apps

When to Migrate (and When NOT to)

Big-bang rewrites are risky and halt product momentum. Migrate only when actively building a feature or fixing a complex bug in an area. Do not migrate code that has not been touched in years solely for aesthetic reasons.

Good Migration Trigger Poor Migration Trigger
Actively building a new feature "Cleaning up" untouched code
Fixing a complex bug in legacy code Compliant refactor of inactive code
Exposing a web feature as an API endpoint Preference for architecture purity

Evolutionary, touched-area migrations using vertical slices and temporary compatibility shims. This is the Strangler Fig approach: grow new behavior alongside the legacy system, move behavior across behind seams, and remove the legacy only once it carries nothing (see strangler-fig.md). The delivery mechanics — transitional architecture, event interception, legacy mimics, diverting the flow — are catalogued in legacy-displacement-patterns.md. It is the antidote to the big-bang rewrite, which fails because replacements take too long, users can't wait for features, and much of the old behavior isn't actually wanted.

System Overview

This skill guides the process of moving PHP applications toward a cleaner architecture through incremental, touched-area migrations using vertical slices and temporary compatibility shims. When adopting layered DDD, follow this order: discover the domain, model aggregates and value objects, define ports, implement use cases, and add adapters last.

Numbered Workflows

1. Evaluating a Migration Trigger

If considering refactoring legacy code into a new architecture:

  1. Check the Motivation. Are you actively building a new feature in this area, fixing a complex bug, or exposing an existing web feature as an API endpoint? If yes, it is a good trigger. Proceed.
  2. Evaluate Complexity Fit. Is the domain complex enough to warrant full DDD? If the rules are mostly CRUD with few invariants, favor lean ORM entities over full DDD aggregates. Start simple and evolve only when needed.
  3. Reject Poor Triggers. Are you just doing it to "clean things up" or to fix a standard violation in code that hasn't been touched in years? If yes, halt the migration.

Read the full file on GitHub · 59 lines

Files

What ships with it

2 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 8d ago First seen · 59 lines · 42 tokens per session scan A 485941293e67

Subscribe to this mod's changes

architecture-migration is a skill published in the GitHub repository garrettw/php-arch-skills (12 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MPL-2.0. It adds 42 tokens to every session and 1,182 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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