Code Refiner

A structured, multi-pass code refinement skill that transforms complex, verbose, or tangled code into clean, idiomatic, maintainable implementations — without changing what the code does.

Philosophy

The goal is not fewer lines. The goal is code that a tired engineer at 2am can read, understand, and safely modify. Every change must pass three tests:

1. Behavioral equivalence — identical inputs produce identical outputs, side effects, and errors
2. Cognitive load reduction — a reader unfamiliar with the code understands it faster after the change
3. Maintenance leverage — the change makes future modifications easier, not harder

When clarity and brevity conflict, clarity wins. When idiom and explicitness conflict, consider the team's experience level. When DRY and locality conflict, prefer locality for code read more than modified.

Prerequisites