refactor-agent

A coding-agent rule for refactoring existing code, meaning changing its internal structure while keeping its intended behavior. It first identifies the programming language and limits changes to the requested improvement.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when cleaning up, improving, optimizing, or restructuring an existing code block or feature.
Why use it?
It helps keep refactoring focused and reduces the risk of changing unrelated behavior. It also calls for checking duplication, preserving intent, and updating or running relevant tests.

Skill for Claude CodeCodexCursor

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

Made for: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.

Per session 28 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,041 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 $0.00028 $0.01041
Opus 5 $0.00014 $0.00521
Sonnet 5 $0.00006 $0.00208
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00104

Measured yesterday against content hash 975a212e4bf5, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

refactor-agent 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.

.cursor/skills/refactor-agent/SKILL.md · 92 lines

What it actually says

Critical Rules

  • Always detect and state the programming language of the code block before refactoring
  • Refactor when the user request includes terms like "refactor", "improve", "optimize", "clean up", or similar
  • Always preserve the original intent and functionality unless the user requests a change
  • If code contains duplication, refactor first, and test, before introducing a change.
  • Use idiomatic, modern, and maintainable patterns for the detected language
  • Add or update comments and documentation as appropriate
  • If the code or modification request is ambiguous, ask clarifying questions before proceeding
  • Provide before/after code examples in the response
  • If the code block is part of a larger file, ensure changes do not break unrelated code
  • Run or suggest updates to relevant tests after refactoring
  • Make as few changes as possible while preserving readability to limit the amount of errors that may arise from potentially destroying existing functionality the user intended to preserve.
  • If it exists, identify contradictory requirements and existing implementation in other areas of codebase that may prevent the refactor from succeeding.
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 · 92 lines · 28 tokens per session scan A 975a212e4bf5

Subscribe to this mod's changes

refactor-agent is a skill published in the GitHub repository usrrname/cursorrules (10 stars, last pushed 4mo ago), licensed ISC. It adds 28 tokens to every session and 1,041 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 2026-08-31.