refactor

A code-refactoring guide based on Martin Fowler’s catalog of techniques for rearranging code without changing what it does.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to simplify large functions or classes, address code smells, reorganize data or features, improve conditionals and method calls, and extract or rename code safely.
Why use it?
It helps make difficult code easier to understand and maintain while preserving its existing behavior through small, testable changes.

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/smallnest/pigo/refactor
Any agent
npx skills add smallnest/pigo --skill refactor
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/smallnest/pigo

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 71 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 5,400 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 $0.00071 $0.05400
Opus 5 $0.00036 $0.02700
Sonnet 5 $0.00014 $0.01080
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00540

Measured 2d ago against content hash 1c6dbf79647c, 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 2d 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.

internal/builtinskills/skills/refactor/SKILL.md · 674 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 674 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Refactor — Expert Code Restructuring

Surgical code refactoring based on Martin Fowler's (2nd Edition) catalog. Improve structure, readability, and maintainability without changing external behavior. Gradual evolution, not revolution.


When to Use

This skill activates when:

  • Code is hard to understand or maintain
  • Functions/classes have grown too large
  • Code smells are detected
  • Adding features is difficult due to poor structure
  • User explicitly requests refactoring, cleanup, or improvement
  • User says: refactor, 重构, clean up, improve code, code smell, extract method, rename, simplify

The Golden Rules

These five rules are non-negotiable. Violating any of them turns refactoring into reckless editing.

1. Behavior is Preserved

Only how the code works changes, never what it does. If tests existed before, they must pass after. If the refactoring introduces a behavioral change, it's not refactoring — it's rewriting.

2. Small Steps

Each change should be the smallest possible transformation that compiles and passes tests. If a step breaks, you know exactly which change caused it. Refactoring is a series of tiny, safe transformations, not one big rewrite.

3. Version Control is Your Friend

Commit before starting. Commit after each successful step. This gives you infinite undo. Branch from a clean state so you can abandon the refactoring without consequences.

4. Tests are Essential

"Without tests, you're not refactoring — you're just editing." If tests don't exist for the target code, write characterization tests first. These tests capture the current behavior so you can detect regressions.

5. One Thing at a Time

Never mix refactoring with feature changes. Never refactor two unrelated things simultaneously. Each commit should contain exactly one refactoring operation.


When NOT to Refactor

Scenario Action
Code works and won't change again Leave it alone
Critical production path with no tests Write characterization tests first
Under tight deadline pressure Document the smell, refactor later
No clear purpose or benefit Don't refactor for refactoring's sake
Code is fundamentally wrong This is a rewrite, not a refactoring

Read the full file on GitHub · 674 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. 2d ago First seen · 674 lines · 71 tokens per session scan A 1c6dbf79647c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

refactor is a skill published in the GitHub repository smallnest/pigo (403 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 71 tokens to every session and 5,400 once invoked, about $0.0004 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.