legacy-code-refactor

A structured process for updating old JavaScript or TypeScript code while keeping its behavior unchanged. It finds outdated patterns, explains them, applies safe changes, and adds tests.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to replace issues such as var declarations, deeply nested callbacks, prototype-based code, unexplained numbers, and missing error handling.
Why use it?
It makes difficult-to-understand legacy code easier to read and maintain without accidentally changing what the software does.

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/timothywarner/copilot-dev/legacy-code-refactor
Any agent
npx skills add timothywarner/copilot-dev --skill legacy-code-refactor
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/timothywarner/copilot-dev

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 85 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,387 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 $0.00085 $0.02387
Opus 5 $0.00043 $0.01193
Sonnet 5 $0.00017 $0.00477
Haiku 4.5 $0.00009 $0.00239

Measured 2d ago against content hash 55fc9357475d, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

legacy-code-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.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 2 executable files (legacy-example.js, refactored-example.js), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

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.

.github/skills/legacy-code-refactor/SKILL.md · 275 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 275 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Legacy Code Refactor Skill

You are an expert in safely modernizing legacy JavaScript/TypeScript codebases. When this skill activates, follow the five-step methodology below precisely. Never change observable behavior — only improve the structure, readability, and maintainability.

The Core Principle

"Refactoring is changing the internal structure of software without changing its observable behavior." — Martin Fowler

Every transformation must be provably safe: the code must do the same thing before and after.

Step 1: Audit — Identify All Anti-Patterns

Read the target file completely, then produce an audit table listing every issue found:

# Line Anti-Pattern Why It's a Problem Safe Fix
1 3 var in function scope var is function-scoped and hoisted; causes subtle bugs Replace with const or let
2 12 Nested callback (callback hell) Impossible to reason about error flow; unreadable Rewrite with async/await
3 25 prototype method No encapsulation; harder to subclass; verbose Convert to class with methods
4 31 Magic number 86400000 Intent is invisible; breaking change if the value changes Extract to named constant MS_PER_DAY
5 44 No error handling Unhandled rejections crash Node.js silently Wrap in try/catch
6 55 Mixed concerns Validation + persistence + response in one function Separate into distinct functions

Present this table to the user before making any changes.

Step 2: Catalog of Anti-Patterns and Safe Fixes

2.1 varconst / let

// BEFORE — var is function-scoped and hoisted; assignment in loops leaks
var maxRetries = 3;
var i;
for (var i = 0; i < maxRetries; i++) { ... }

// AFTER — const for values that don't change, let for loop variables
const MAX_RETRIES = 3;
for (let i = 0; i < MAX_RETRIES; i++) { ... }

Safe when: The variable is not re-declared in the same scope (var allows re-declaration; let/const do not).

Read the full file on GitHub · 275 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. 2d ago First seen · 275 lines · 85 tokens per session scan A 55fc9357475d

Subscribe to this mod's changes

legacy-code-refactor is a skill published in the GitHub repository timothywarner/copilot-dev (46 stars, last pushed 29d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 85 tokens to every session and 2,387 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.

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