legacy-modernization

legacy-modernization is a skill for Claude Code from sethdford/claude-skills. It costs 25 tokens per session (225 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A method for updating older software gradually while keeping it running. It uses patterns such as a strangler approach, where new parts are built beside the old system and traffic is moved over step by step, and facade layers, which provide a modern interface around old code.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to assess legacy systems, wrap them with modern interfaces, extract modules gradually, and plan a move toward newer technology without a full rewrite.
Why use it?
Replacing a legacy system all at once is costly and can take years before users see value. Incremental changes limit disruption and let each stage address a real business problem.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin.

Part of the decision-making plugin — 8 skills, 3 commands shipped together

Good fit Use it to assess legacy systems, wrap them with modern interfaces, extract modules gradually, and plan a move toward newer technology without a full rewrite.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/sethdford/claude-skills/legacy-modernization
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 sethdford/claude-skills --skill legacy-modernization
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/sethdford/claude-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install decision-making, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 8 skills, 3 commands.

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 legacy-modernization

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/sethdford/claude-skills/legacy-modernization/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/sethdford/claude-skills/legacy-modernization)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/sethdford/claude-skills/legacy-modernization"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/sethdford/claude-skills/legacy-modernization/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 legacy-modernization

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/sethdford/claude-skills/legacy-modernization"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/sethdford/claude-skills/legacy-modernization.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 25 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 225 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 $0.00025 $0.00225
Opus 5 $0.00013 $0.00112
Sonnet 5 $0.00005 $0.00045
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00022

Measured 12d ago against content hash 7f257c3d091d, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

legacy-modernization 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 12d 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.

architect/decision-making/skills/legacy-modernization/SKILL.md · 26 lines

What it actually says

Legacy Modernization

Modernize legacy systems incrementally using strangler fig pattern, facade layers, and strategic refactoring.

Instructions

  1. Assessment: Understand current system behavior, pain points
  2. Strangler Fig: New services alongside old monolith; gradually redirect traffic
  3. Facade Layer: Wrap legacy with modern API without changing internals
  4. Refactoring: Extract modules one at a time to modern stack
  5. Incremental Value: Each phase delivers business value

Anti-Patterns

  • Rewrite Everything: "Let's rebuild it right." Result: 2-3 years, misses market. Guard: Keep old system running while new builds alongside.
  • No Business Alignment: Modernize things users don't care about. Guard: Modernize parts causing business pain first.

Further Reading

  • Monolith to Microservices — specific modernization patterns
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. 12d ago First seen · 26 lines · 25 tokens per session scan A 7f257c3d091d

Subscribe to this mod's changes

legacy-modernization is a skill published in the GitHub repository sethdford/claude-skills (41 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 25 tokens to every session and 225 once invoked, about $0.0001 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 2026-08-30.