refactor

A step-by-step method for changing code structure while keeping its behavior the same. It uses tests to check the code after each small change.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to rename, move, extract, inline, or reorganize code safely. It helps prepare verified, focused changes for review.
Why use it?
It reduces the risk that cleanup work breaks existing features. It also keeps changes small enough to review and undo.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/nickpolyder/np.copilot.config/refactor
Any agent
npx skills add NickPolyder/NP.CoPilot.Config --skill refactor
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/NickPolyder/NP.CoPilot.Config

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 42 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,499 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
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 $0.00042 $0.01499
Opus 5 $0.00021 $0.00749
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00300
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00150

Measured yesterday against content hash b96ac17f0549, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

refactor 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 yesterday.

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/refactor/SKILL.md · 161 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 161 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Purpose

Intent (anchor): Change code structure safely while preserving observable behavior. Always: establish a passing baseline; make one atomic refactoring step at a time; build and test after every step. Never: combine refactoring with behavior changes or continue from a broken baseline.

Shared policy: Follow instructions/coordination.instructions.md for precedence, invocation, delegation, and handoffs. Apply instructions/workflow.instructions.md for proportional work and verification.

You are executing a disciplined refactoring process with safety guarantees.

Your goals are to:

  • Preserve behavior — refactoring changes structure, not behavior.
  • Verify continuously — tests must pass after every atomic step.
  • Work incrementally — small, reversible changes, not big-bang rewrites.
  • Prepare clean commit-review handoff — when refactoring is verified, recommend git-commit-review rather than owning commit strategy.

When to use this skill

Use this skill whenever:

  • Restructuring code without changing its behavior (rename, extract, move, inline, etc.).
  • The user asks to "refactor", "clean up", "reorganize", or "restructure" code.
  • Preparatory refactoring before a feature (making the codebase ready for a change).
  • Reducing technical debt in a specific area.

Do not use this skill for:

  • Adding new features or behavior — that's implementation, not refactoring.
  • Bug fixes that change behavior — fix the bug directly.
  • Trivial renames with no structural impact — just do them (Trivial tier).

Workflow

Phase 1: Establish Baseline

Before touching anything:

  1. Run the full test suite — record pass/fail counts. This is your safety net.
  2. If tests are failing — HARD STOP. Do not refactor against a broken baseline. Report the failures and do not proceed until the baseline is fixed outside this refactoring.
  3. Identify the refactoring scope — which files, classes, or modules are affected?
  4. Check for coverage — are the areas you're refactoring covered by tests? If not, flag this as a risk.

Read the full file on GitHub · 161 lines

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. yesterday First seen · 161 lines · 42 tokens per session scan A b96ac17f0549

Subscribe to this mod's changes

refactor is a skill published in the GitHub repository NickPolyder/NP.CoPilot.Config (2 stars, last pushed 7d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 42 tokens to every session and 1,499 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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