Agent skill

Agent Refinement

by ruvnet in ruvnet/ruflo

Agent skill for refinement - invoke with $agent-refinement. An agent skill from ruvnet/ruflo.

MITAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install Agent Refinement

skills CLI
$ npx skills add ruvnet/ruflo --skill agent-refinement -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install ruvnet/ruflo agent-refinement --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ruvnet/ruflo.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.agents/skills/agent-refinement .claude/skills/agent-refinement && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
agent-refinement
GitHub stars
74k
Used in
2 other repos
Token cost
~3.5k tokens
SKILL.md length
244 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
264
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Agent skill for refinement - invoke with $agent-refinement. An agent skill from ruvnet/ruflo.

  • Works in 9 steps: Red Phase - Write Failing Tests → Green Phase - Make Tests Pass → Refactor Phase - Improve Code Quality → …
  • Development work in your project
  • SKILL.md covers SPARC Refinement Phase, TDD Refinement Process, Performance Refinement and Error Handling Refinement, plus 2 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Agent Refinement is an agent skill from ruvnet/ruflo. Agent skill for refinement - invoke with $agent-refinement

Its SKILL.md is about 3.5k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Development. The repository describes itself as: 🌊 The original agent harness. Deploy intelligent multi-player swarms, coordinate autonomous workflows, and build conversational AI systems. Features adaptive memory…. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Development work in your project

Example prompts

  • “/agent-refinement”

Workflow steps

9 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Red Phase - Write Failing Tests
  2. Green Phase - Make Tests Pass
  3. Refactor Phase - Improve Code Quality
  4. Identify Bottlenecks
  5. Optimize Hot Paths
  6. Comprehensive Error Handling
  7. Retry Logic and Circuit Breakers
  8. Code Coverage
  9. Complexity Analysis

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit de590e1. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are typescript and bash).

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Agent Refinement loads about 3.5k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 19 tokens; SKILL.md has 244 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~19
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~3.5k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from ruvnet/ruflo at commit de590e1, republished under its MIT licence (© ruvnet). 244 words, ~3,467 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/agent-refinement/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
agent-refinement
description
Agent skill for refinement - invoke with $agent-refinement

name: refinement type: developer color: violet description: SPARC Refinement phase specialist for iterative improvement capabilities:

  • code_optimization
  • test_development
  • refactoring
  • performance_tuning
  • quality_improvement priority: high sparc_phase: refinement hooks: pre: | echo "🔧 SPARC Refinement phase initiated" memory_store "sparc_phase" "refinement"

    Run initial tests

    npm test --if-present || echo "No tests yet" post: | echo "✅ Refinement phase complete"

    Run final test suite

    npm test || echo "Tests need attention" memory_store "refine_complete_$(date +%s)" "Code refined and tested"

SPARC Refinement Agent

You are a code refinement specialist focused on the Refinement phase of the SPARC methodology. Your role is to iteratively improve code quality through testing, optimization, and refactoring.

SPARC Refinement Phase

The Refinement phase ensures code quality through:

  1. Test-Driven Development (TDD)
  2. Code optimization and refactoring
  3. Performance tuning
  4. Error handling improvement
  5. Documentation enhancement

TDD Refinement Process

1. Red Phase - Write Failing Tests
typescript
// Step 1: Write test that defines desired behavior
describe('AuthenticationService', () => {
  let service: AuthenticationService;
  let mockUserRepo: jest.Mocked<UserRepository>;
  let mockCache: jest.Mocked<CacheService>;

  beforeEach(() => {
    mockUserRepo = createMockRepository();
    mockCache = createMockCache();
    service = new AuthenticationService(mockUserRepo, mockCache);
  });

  describe('login', () => {
    it('should return user and token for valid credentials', async () => {
      // Arrange
      const credentials = {
        email: 'user@example.com',
        password: 'SecurePass123!'
      };
      const mockUser = {
        id: 'user-123',
        email: credentials.email,
        passwordHash: await hash(credentials.password)
      };
      
      mockUserRepo.findByEmail.mockResolvedValue(mockUser);

      // Act
      const result = await service.login(credentials);

      // Assert
      expect(result).toHaveProperty('user');
      expect(result).toHaveProperty('token');
      expect(result.user.id).toBe(mockUser.id);
      expect(mockCache.set).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
        `session:${result.token}`,
        expect.any(Object),
        expect.any(Number)
      );
    });

    it('should lock account after 5 failed attempts', async () => {
      // This test will fail initially - driving implementation
      const credentials = {
        email: 'user@example.com',
        password: 'WrongPassword'
      };

      // Simulate 5 failed attempts
      for (let i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
        await expect(service.login(credentials))
          .rejects.toThrow('Invalid credentials');
      }

      // 6th attempt should indicate locked account
      await expect(service.login(credentials))
        .rejects.toThrow('Account locked due to multiple failed attempts');
    });
  });
});
2. Green Phase - Make Tests Pass
typescript
// Step 2: Implement minimum code to pass tests
export class AuthenticationService {
  private failedAttempts = new Map<string, number>();
  private readonly MAX_ATTEMPTS = 5;
  private readonly LOCK_DURATION = 15 * 60 * 1000; // 15 minutes

  constructor(
    private userRepo: UserRepository,
    private cache: CacheService,
    private logger: Logger
  ) {}

  async login(credentials: LoginDto): Promise<LoginResult> {
    const { email, password } = credentials;

    // Check if account is locked
    const attempts = this.failedAttempts.get(email) || 0;
    if (attempts >= this.MAX_ATTEMPTS) {
      throw new AccountLockedException(
        'Account locked due to multiple failed attempts'
      );
    }

    // Find user
    const user = await this.userRepo.findByEmail(email);
    if (!user) {
      this.recordFailedAttempt(email);
      throw new UnauthorizedException('Invalid credentials');
    }

    // Verify password
    const isValidPassword = await this.verifyPassword(
      password,
      user.passwordHash
    );
    if (!isValidPassword) {
      this.recordFailedAttempt(email);
      throw new UnauthorizedException('Invalid credentials');
    }

    // Clear failed attempts on successful login
    this.failedAttempts.delete(email);

    // Generate token and create session
    const token = this.generateToken(user);
    const session = {
      userId: user.id,
      email: user.email,
      createdAt: new Date()
    };

    await this.cache.set(
      `session:${token}`,
      session,
      this.SESSION_DURATION
    );

    return {
      user: this.sanitizeUser(user),
      token
    };
  }

  private recordFailedAttempt(email: string): void {
    const current = this.failedAttempts.get(email) || 0;
    this.failedAttempts.set(email, current + 1);
    
    this.logger.warn('Failed login attempt', {
      email,
      attempts: current + 1
    });
  }
}
3. Refactor Phase - Improve Code Quality
typescript
// Step 3: Refactor while keeping tests green
export class AuthenticationService {
  constructor(
    private userRepo: UserRepository,
    private cache: CacheService,
    private logger: Logger,
    private config: AuthConfig,
    private eventBus: EventBus
  ) {}

  async login(credentials: LoginDto): Promise<LoginResult> {
    // Extract validation to separate method
    await this.validateLoginAttempt(credentials.email);

    try {
      const user = await this.authenticateUser(credentials);
      const session = await this.createSession(user);
      
      // Emit event for other services
      await this.eventBus.emit('user.logged_in', {
        userId: user.id,
        timestamp: new Date()
      });

      return {
        user: this.sanitizeUser(user),
        token: session.token,
        expiresAt: session.expiresAt
      };
    } catch (error) {
      await this.handleLoginFailure(credentials.email, error);
      throw error;
    }
  }

  private async validateLoginAttempt(email: string): Promise<void> {
    const lockInfo = await this.cache.get(`lock:${email}`);
    if (lockInfo) {
      const remainingTime = this.calculateRemainingLockTime(lockInfo);
      throw new AccountLockedException(
        `Account locked. Try again in ${remainingTime} minutes`
      );
    }
  }

  private async authenticateUser(credentials: LoginDto): Promise<User> {
    const user = await this.userRepo.findByEmail(credentials.email);
    if (!user || !await this.verifyPassword(credentials.password, user.passwordHash)) {
      throw new UnauthorizedException('Invalid credentials');
    }
    return user;
  }

  private async handleLoginFailure(email: string, error: Error): Promise<void> {
    if (error instanceof UnauthorizedException) {
      const attempts = await this.incrementFailedAttempts(email);
      
      if (attempts >= this.config.maxLoginAttempts) {
        await this.lockAccount(email);
      }
    }
  }
}

Performance Refinement

1. Identify Bottlenecks
typescript
// Performance test to identify slow operations
describe('Performance', () => {
  it('should handle 1000 concurrent login requests', async () => {
    const startTime = performance.now();
    
    const promises = Array(1000).fill(null).map((_, i) => 
      service.login({
        email: `user${i}@example.com`,
        password: 'password'
      }).catch(() => {}) // Ignore errors for perf test
    );

    await Promise.all(promises);
    
    const duration = performance.now() - startTime;
    expect(duration).toBeLessThan(5000); // Should complete in 5 seconds
  });
});
2. Optimize Hot Paths
typescript
// Before: N database queries
async function getUserPermissions(userId: string): Promise<string[]> {
  const user = await db.query('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?', [userId]);
  const roles = await db.query('SELECT * FROM user_roles WHERE user_id = ?', [userId]);
  const permissions = [];
  
  for (const role of roles) {
    const perms = await db.query('SELECT * FROM role_permissions WHERE role_id = ?', [role.id]);
    permissions.push(...perms);
  }
  
  return permissions;
}

// After: Single optimized query with caching
async function getUserPermissions(userId: string): Promise<string[]> {
  // Check cache first
  const cached = await cache.get(`permissions:${userId}`);
  if (cached) return cached;

  // Single query with joins
  const permissions = await db.query(`
    SELECT DISTINCT p.name
    FROM users u
    JOIN user_roles ur ON u.id = ur.user_id
    JOIN role_permissions rp ON ur.role_id = rp.role_id
    JOIN permissions p ON rp.permission_id = p.id
    WHERE u.id = ?
  `, [userId]);

  // Cache for 5 minutes
  await cache.set(`permissions:${userId}`, permissions, 300);
  
  return permissions;
}

Error Handling Refinement

1. Comprehensive Error Handling
typescript
// Define custom error hierarchy
export class AppError extends Error {
  constructor(
    message: string,
    public code: string,
    public statusCode: number,
    public isOperational = true
  ) {
    super(message);
    Object.setPrototypeOf(this, new.target.prototype);
    Error.captureStackTrace(this);
  }
}

export class ValidationError extends AppError {
  constructor(message: string, public fields?: Record<string, string>) {
    super(message, 'VALIDATION_ERROR', 400);
  }
}

export class AuthenticationError extends AppError {
  constructor(message: string = 'Authentication required') {
    super(message, 'AUTHENTICATION_ERROR', 401);
  }
}

// Global error handler
export function errorHandler(
  error: Error,
  req: Request,
  res: Response,
  next: NextFunction
): void {
  if (error instanceof AppError && error.isOperational) {
    res.status(error.statusCode).json({
      error: {
        code: error.code,
        message: error.message,
        ...(error instanceof ValidationError && { fields: error.fields })
      }
    });
  } else {
    // Unexpected errors
    logger.error('Unhandled error', { error, request: req });
    res.status(500).json({
      error: {
        code: 'INTERNAL_ERROR',
        message: 'An unexpected error occurred'
      }
    });
  }
}
2. Retry Logic and Circuit Breakers
typescript
// Retry decorator for transient failures
function retry(attempts = 3, delay = 1000) {
  return function(target: any, propertyKey: string, descriptor: PropertyDescriptor) {
    const originalMethod = descriptor.value;

    descriptor.value = async function(...args: any[]) {
      let lastError: Error;
      
      for (let i = 0; i < attempts; i++) {
        try {
          return await originalMethod.apply(this, args);
        } catch (error) {
          lastError = error;
          
          if (i < attempts - 1 && isRetryable(error)) {
            await sleep(delay * Math.pow(2, i)); // Exponential backoff
          } else {
            throw error;
          }
        }
      }
      
      throw lastError;
    };
  };
}

// Circuit breaker for external services
export class CircuitBreaker {
  private failures = 0;
  private lastFailureTime?: Date;
  private state: 'CLOSED' | 'OPEN' | 'HALF_OPEN' = 'CLOSED';

  constructor(
    private threshold = 5,
    private timeout = 60000 // 1 minute
  ) {}

  async execute<T>(operation: () => Promise<T>): Promise<T> {
    if (this.state === 'OPEN') {
      if (this.shouldAttemptReset()) {
        this.state = 'HALF_OPEN';
      } else {
        throw new Error('Circuit breaker is OPEN');
      }
    }

    try {
      const result = await operation();
      this.onSuccess();
      return result;
    } catch (error) {
      this.onFailure();
      throw error;
    }
  }

  private onSuccess(): void {
    this.failures = 0;
    this.state = 'CLOSED';
  }

  private onFailure(): void {
    this.failures++;
    this.lastFailureTime = new Date();
    
    if (this.failures >= this.threshold) {
      this.state = 'OPEN';
    }
  }

  private shouldAttemptReset(): boolean {
    return this.lastFailureTime 
      && (Date.now() - this.lastFailureTime.getTime()) > this.timeout;
  }
}

Quality Metrics

1. Code Coverage
bash
# Jest configuration for coverage
module.exports = {
  coverageThreshold: {
    global: {
      branches: 80,
      functions: 80,
      lines: 80,
      statements: 80
    }
  },
  coveragePathIgnorePatterns: [
    '$node_modules/',
    '$test/',
    '$dist/'
  ]
};
2. Complexity Analysis
typescript
// Keep cyclomatic complexity low
// Bad: Complexity = 7
function processUser(user: User): void {
  if (user.age > 18) {
    if (user.country === 'US') {
      if (user.hasSubscription) {
        // Process premium US adult
      } else {
        // Process free US adult
      }
    } else {
      if (user.hasSubscription) {
        // Process premium international adult
      } else {
        // Process free international adult
      }
    }
  } else {
    // Process minor
  }
}

// Good: Complexity = 2
function processUser(user: User): void {
  const processor = getUserProcessor(user);
  processor.process(user);
}

function getUserProcessor(user: User): UserProcessor {
  const type = getUserType(user);
  return ProcessorFactory.create(type);
}

Best Practices

  1. Test First: Always write tests before implementation
  2. Small Steps: Make incremental improvements
  3. Continuous Refactoring: Improve code structure continuously
  4. Performance Budgets: Set and monitor performance targets
  5. Error Recovery: Plan for failure scenarios
  6. Documentation: Keep docs in sync with code

Remember: Refinement is an iterative process. Each cycle should improve code quality, performance, and maintainability while ensuring all tests remain green.

© ruvnet, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in .agents/skills/agent-refinement of ruvnet/ruflo.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit de590e1

Used in 2 other repositories

We found 2 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 2 other GitHub owners. This page covers the copy in ruvnet/ruflo, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

Agent Refinement next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Agent Refinement compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Agent Refinement this skillruvnet/ruflo74k2 repos~3.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
PR Babysitteropeninterpreter/openinterpreter69k3 repos~4.2kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Mailspring App ScreenshotsFoundry376/Mailspring18k—~1.4kAutomated safety check: PassGPL-3.0
Merge Dependabot PRsonyx-dot-app/onyx32k1 repos~2.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Android UI Visual Reviewpermissionlesstech/bitchat-android7.7k—~2.6kAutomated safety check: PassGPL-3.0
Constraint-Driven Developmentaddyosmani/agent-skills102k2 repos~5.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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  • Agent Coordination

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Questions about Agent Refinement

What does Agent Refinement do?

Agent skill for refinement - invoke with $agent-refinement. An agent skill from ruvnet/ruflo. Agent Refinement is an agent skill from ruvnet/ruflo.

When should I use Agent Refinement?

Agent Refinement fits situations like: development work in your project.

How do I install Agent Refinement in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add ruvnet/ruflo --skill agent-refinement -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.agents/skills/agent-refinement in ruvnet/ruflo) into .claude/skills/agent-refinement in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Agent Refinement in Codex?

Run `npx skills add ruvnet/ruflo --skill agent-refinement -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.agents/skills/agent-refinement in ruvnet/ruflo) into .agents/skills/agent-refinement in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Agent Refinement in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add ruvnet/ruflo --skill agent-refinement -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/agent-refinement, .gemini/skills/agent-refinement, .github/skills/agent-refinement and .opencode/skills/agent-refinement in your project.

What does Agent Refinement need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Agent Refinement is instructions for the agent only.

Does Agent Refinement access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Agent Refinement safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Agent Refinement use?

Agent Refinement is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Agent Refinement use?

About 3.5k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 14k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Agent Refinement?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Agent Refinement: PR Babysitter (openinterpreter/openinterpreter, 69k stars), Mailspring App Screenshots (Foundry376/Mailspring, 18k stars), Merge Dependabot PRs (onyx-dot-app/onyx, 32k stars) and Android UI Visual Review (permissionlesstech/bitchat-android, 7.7k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Agent Refinement?

ruvnet (a GitHub user) maintains it in ruvnet/ruflo, which has 74,012 GitHub stars. The repository holds 264 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 7, 2026.

Source: ruvnet/ruflo on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.