Refactoring

Apply specific, named, behavior-preserving refactoring moves — one at a time, with tests passing before and after each move.

"Make each refactoring step as small as possible, so that you can always see the program working." — Martin Fowler

Skill workflow — refactoring follows from audit and precedes patterns: clean-code or techdebt (identify what needs changing) → refactoring (apply the moves) → design-patterns (apply a pattern if one is now appropriate)

Note: This skill covers the execution of specific moves. For planning a larger structural change — choosing strategy, mapping blast radius, breaking into safe commits — use refactoring-plan instead.

Philosophy

Refactoring is not rewriting. It is a sequence of small, mechanical, behavior-preserving transformations. Each step:

• Leaves the code working (tests pass)
• Is independently understandable
• Moves toward better structure