Agent skill

Refactor

by testdouble in testdouble/han

Restructure existing code without changing its behavior, through a test-gated refactoring loop: a named target, a green suite over that target before any edit, a planned sequence of small named…

MITAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install Refactor

skills CLI
$ npx skills add testdouble/han --skill refactor -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install testdouble/han refactor --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/testdouble/han.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/han-coding/skills/refactor .claude/skills/refactor && 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
refactor
GitHub stars
279
Token cost
~3.1k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,647 words
Files
3 (incl. scripts, references)
Skills in repo
54
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Restructure existing code without changing its behavior, through a test-gated refactoring loop: a named target, a green suite over that target before any edit, a planned sequence of small named…

  • Works in 5 steps: Bind the Target and Resolve Project Config → Establish the Safety Net → Plan the Sequence Before Editing → …
  • The user wants to refactor
  • SKILL.md covers Project Context, Constraints (read before…, Step 1: Bind the Target and… and Step 2: Establish the Safety Net, plus 3 more sections
  • Runs Shell scripts from its folder; calls git and bash

What it does

Refactor is an agent skill from testdouble/han. Restructure existing code without changing its behavior, through a test-gated refactoring loop: a named target, a green suite over that target before any edit, a planned sequence of small named refactorings, and the full suite re-run after every step. Use when the user wants to refactor, restructure, clean up, simplify, or improve the design of existing code, or to apply refactoring recommendations from a code-review or architectural-analysis report. This skill changes code; it does not review code (use…

Its SKILL.md is about 3.1k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 4 other files, including scripts and reference files (for example `references/refactoring-discipline.md` and `scripts/detect-refactor-context.sh`).

It sits in Development, covering Refactoring, Test-driven development and Code review. It works with Git. The repository describes itself as: Han: AI skills and agents for "Solo" product engineers and small teams. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • The user wants to refactor
  • Improve the design of existing code
  • Apply refactoring recommendations from a code-review
  • Architectural-analysis report

Example prompts

  • “/refactor”

Requirements

  • Python 3
  • Node.js
  • A Bash shell
  • Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep, Bash(git *), Bash(find *), Bash(npm *), Bash(npx *), Bash(pnpm *), Bash(yarn *), Bash(pytest *), Bash(python3 *), Bash(go *), Bash(cargo *), Bash(make *), Bash(bundle *), Bash(rake *), Bash(bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/han-config-dir.sh")

Workflow steps

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

  1. Bind the Target and Resolve Project Config
  2. Establish the Safety Net
  3. Plan the Sequence Before Editing
  4. Execute, One Named Refactoring at a Time
  5. Final Verification and Summary

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit abba73a. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves these tools, so the agent can use them without asking each time:

    • Read
    • Write
    • Edit
    • Glob
    • Grep
    • Bash(git *)
    • Bash(find *)
    • Bash(npm *)
    • Bash(npx *)
    • Bash(pnpm *)

    …and 9 more on the same allowed-tools line.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Ships 1 file in scripts/ (Shell), which the agent can run.

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • git
    • bash

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

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use git, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

    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

Refactor loads about 3.1k tokens when it runs, and up to ~4.9k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 248 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,647 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~248
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~3.1k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~4.9k

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); the scripts in this folder are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from testdouble/han at commit abba73a, republished under its MIT licence (© testdouble). 1,647 words, ~3,116 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/refactor/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 2 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
refactor
description
Restructure existing code without changing its behavior, through a test-gated refactoring loop: a named target, a green suite over that target before any edit, a planned sequence of small named refactorings, and the full suite re-run after every step. Use when the user wants to refactor, restructure, clean up, simplify, or improve the design of existing code, or to apply refactoring recommendations from a code-review or architectural-analysis report. This skill changes code; it does not review code (use code-review), assess architecture (use architectural-analysis), plan a multi-module restructure before executing it (use plan-a-change), map domain boundaries before restructuring along them (use ddd-analysis), or build new behavior test-first (use tdd). Do not use it on code inside an active tdd loop; the refactor step of tdd owns that cleanup. Runs its planned sequence to completion without pausing for review; to review each named refactoring as it lands, use pairing.
allowed-tools
Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep, Bash(git *), Bash(find *), Bash(npm *), Bash(npx *), Bash(pnpm *), Bash(yarn *), Bash(pytest *), Bash(python3 *), Bash(go *), Bash(cargo *), Bash(make *), Bash(bundle *), Bash(rake *), Bash(bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/han-config-dir.sh")
argument-hint
[file, module, named smell, or a path to review findings]

Project Context

  • git installed: !which git 2>/dev/null || echo "not installed"
  • current branch: !git branch --show-current 2>/dev/null || echo unknown
  • working tree: !git status --porcelain 2>/dev/null | head -5
  • CLAUDE.md: !find . -maxdepth 1 -name "CLAUDE.md" -type f
  • project-discovery.md: !find . -maxdepth 3 -name "project-discovery.md" -type f
  • personal config directory: !bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/han-config-dir.sh" 2>/dev/null || echo "$HOME/.claude"
  • project .han/config.md: !cat .han/config.md 2>/dev/null || echo ""

As your first action, use the Read tool on .han/config.md inside the personal config directory path above. A read that returns no file is no personal configuration: continue silently. When that file or the project .han/config.md probe supplies content, apply it per config-rule.md, which governs precedence between the two files, relative-path resolution, and what to do with a file that reads but cannot be used.

Constraints (read before anything else)

This skill restructures existing production and test code in your working tree. It is an execution skill, not a document generator. These constraints shape every step and override any instinct to move faster. The canon they derive from, with provenance, is in references/refactoring-discipline.md; pull that reference when a step needs the full rule or a step feels off.

  • Behavior preservation is the definition. A refactoring changes internal structure without changing observable behavior. A change that alters behavior is not a refactoring done badly; it is not a refactoring at all. When a planned step turns out to require a behavior change, it leaves this skill's scope: defer it with a note naming the behavior change it needs.
  • Tests are the license to refactor. No edit until the full suite has been run, observed green, and the target's behavior is covered. If coverage of the target cannot be established, stop and offer the characterization path in the reference; never refactor blind.
  • Small named steps, green to green. Each step is one named refactoring with a bounded mechanic (extract function, rename, move, inline, and so on), and the suite runs after every step. A red suite after a step means revert the step, not patch forward.
  • The declared scope is a contract. The target named in Step 1 bounds every edit. When a step starts pulling in files outside that scope, stop, report the spread, and let the user re-scope. Spreading edits are how a refactoring silently becomes a rewrite.
  • Never alongside an active tdd loop. If the working tree shows a red-green cycle in flight (failing tests, a half-implemented behavior), do not run: the refactor step of /tdd owns cleanup inside the loop, and restructuring while a test is red violates the two-hats rule both skills share.
  • Refactor-only changes. No behavior fixes, no features, no drive-by bug fixes, even when you spot one. Record what you found and leave it. If the user asks for commits, each commit contains refactoring only.
  • YAGNI governs the plan. Apply ../../references/yagni-rule.md: every refactoring in the plan needs evidence the code has a reason to change (a review finding, named duplication, a confusing read documented by the user, upcoming work in that area). Removing duplication is the job; adding speculative abstraction, configuration, or indirection is not. Defer evidence-free items with a reopen trigger.

Refactor

Step 1: Bind the Target and Resolve Project Config

Bind the target. Resolve the request to a named target: specific files or directories, a named code smell in a named place, or the refactoring findings in a provided document (a /code-review report, an /architectural-analysis report, or equivalent). When a findings document is given, extract only the refactoring-shaped findings (structural suggestions, duplication, naming, coupling) and record each finding's ID so the summary can trace back to it. If the request is open-ended ("clean up the codebase", "improve quality") with no named target, ask the user for one before doing anything: open-ended refactoring runs are the documented failure mode this skill exists to avoid, and a wrong guess here burns the whole run.

Resolve commands. Read CLAUDE.md's ## Project Discovery section for the test command (under ### Commands and Tests), the lint command, the build command, language, and framework. If absent, fall back to project-discovery.md. If still absent, run ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/detect-refactor-context.sh and parse its output for git state and manifest-inferred commands. A missing test command is a hard blocker: exhaust inference, then ask the user, because this skill cannot run without a way to verify behavior. Also note any type-check command the project has; where one exists it runs alongside the tests as a second behavior-preservation check.

Resolve standards and decisions. Resolve the coding-standards directory and ADR directory the same way: CLAUDE.md's ## Project Discovery section, then project-discovery.md, then Glob defaults (docs/, docs/adr/, docs/coding-standards/, docs/decisions/). Also check CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md for inline standards. Read the standards and ADRs whose titles, paths, or one-line summaries indicate they govern the target area; cap at five documents. The target's restructured form must conform to these. If none exist, state that plainly and infer conventions from the surrounding code.

Step 2: Establish the Safety Net

Check the tree. If working tree in Project Context shows failing mid-cycle work or the user describes an in-flight tdd loop on this code, stop and say why (the never-alongside-tdd constraint). Uncommitted but complete work is fine; recommend committing it first so refactoring diffs stay clean, then proceed.

Run the full suite. Run the resolved test command with Bash. Paste the runner's summary line. If anything is red, stop: a red suite is not a license to refactor. Report the failures and recommend fixing them first (via /investigate or /tdd), or re-scoping the target away from the broken area.

Establish coverage of the target. Confirm the target's observable behavior is exercised by the suite: find the tests that drive the target (Glob and Grep for the target's public symbols in test files), and run them scoped if the runner supports it. State plainly which behaviors are covered and which are not. If the target has no meaningful coverage, stop and offer two ways forward, and wait for the user's choice: narrow the target to the covered part, or write characterization tests first using the protocol in references/refactoring-discipline.md. Characterization tests pin current observed behavior (including current bugs) and are a lower-confidence net than intent-written tests; say so in the report.

Show full SKILL.md (629 more words)Show less

Step 3: Plan the Sequence Before Editing

Plan the whole run before the first edit. Produce a numbered refactoring plan where each item is:

  • One named refactoring (the vocabulary is in the reference; use the project's language idioms, not Java mechanics), applied to a named place.
  • The evidence for it. The finding ID, the duplicated code, the standard or ADR it brings the code into conformance with, or the user's stated pain. Items without evidence are deferred per the YAGNI constraint, with a reopen trigger, never silently dropped.
  • Its expected blast radius. The files the step should touch. This is what the scope stop-rule in Step 4 checks against.

Order the plan so each step leaves the code releasable: small, independent steps first, dependent steps after the steps they need. Report the plan to the user, then continue immediately; this is a report, not a gate. The one exception: if the request explicitly asks to review or approve the plan first, wait for approval.

Step 4: Execute, One Named Refactoring at a Time

Take the plan items in order. For each:

  1. Make the one change. Apply the single named refactoring, touching only the files in its declared blast radius. Stay in the refactoring hat: no behavior fixes, no extras spotted along the way (record them for the summary instead).

  2. Run the full suite (and the type-check command where one was resolved). Paste the runner's summary line. Paste full output only when something fails or looks unexpected.

  3. Green: cross the item off and move to the next.

    Running collaboratively. When the request asks to review each named refactoring as it lands, which is what pairing does when it hands work here, stop at this point and hand control back instead of continuing. Present the stop in the shape collaborative-stop-rule.md specifies. Absent such a request, continue as below; an ordinary invocation is unchanged.

  4. Red: revert this step. When git is available and the tree was clean at start, git checkout/git restore the touched files. When git is absent, or the tree was already dirty at start, undo the edits directly instead, so reverting this step does not discard the user's other work. Do not patch forward over a red suite; a failed step means the mechanic was unsafe or the coverage was thinner than it looked. Diagnose, then either retry with a smaller step or defer the item with what you learned.

  5. Stop rules. If the step needed files outside its declared blast radius, or the only way to make it work changes observable behavior, or two consecutive plan items have been reverted: stop, report where things stand (everything already applied is green and stands), and let the user re-scope.

If the user asked for commits, commit after each green step or each logical group of green steps, message naming the refactoring applied, refactoring only.

Step 5: Final Verification and Summary

Run the full test suite, the lint command, and the build command from Step 1. Paste the summary line from each. If lint or build fails on code this skill touched, fix it and re-run; that is in scope.

Summarize for the user:

  • Each refactoring applied, named, with the evidence it rested on (finding IDs from the source report where one was used) and the files it touched.
  • Deferred items: the YAGNI deferrals with reopen triggers, any items deferred because they required behavior changes, and any stop-rule exits.
  • Anything spotted but deliberately left alone (bugs, smells outside scope), so it can feed /issue-triage or the next /code-review.
  • Which coding standards and ADRs the restructured code now conforms to.
  • Final test, lint, and build status, with output shown, not asserted.
  • If characterization tests were written, say so and recommend replacing them with intent-written tests over time.

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

Files

SKILL.md and 2 other files (scripts, references) in han-coding/skills/refactor of testdouble/han.

  • SKILL.md
  • references/refactoring-discipline.md
  • scripts/detect-refactor-context.sh

Open the folder on GitHubat commit abba73a

Compare with similar skills

Refactor 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.

Refactor compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Refactor this skilltestdouble/han279—~3.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Tbdjlevy/strif131—~3.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Happier Implementhappier-dev/happier1.9k—~4.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Review And Simplify ChangesDimillian/Skills4k—~2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Qe Pair Programmingproffesor-for-testing/agentic-qe4946 repos~6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Get Qodo Rulessbusso/claudeclaw194—~1.4kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT

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Works with

Categories

Questions about Refactor

What does Refactor do?

Restructure existing code without changing its behavior, through a test-gated refactoring loop: a named target, a green suite over that target before any edit, a planned sequence of small named…. Refactor is an agent skill from testdouble/han. Restructure existing code without changing its behavior, through a test-gated refactoring loop: a named target, a green suite over that target before any edit, a planned sequence of small named refactorings, and the full suite re-run after every step.

When should I use Refactor?

Refactor fits situations like: the user wants to refactor; improve the design of existing code; apply refactoring recommendations from a code-review; architectural-analysis report.

How do I install Refactor in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add testdouble/han --skill refactor -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (han-coding/skills/refactor in testdouble/han) into .claude/skills/refactor in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Refactor in Codex?

Run `npx skills add testdouble/han --skill refactor -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (han-coding/skills/refactor in testdouble/han) into .agents/skills/refactor in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Refactor 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 testdouble/han --skill refactor -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/refactor, .gemini/skills/refactor, .github/skills/refactor and .opencode/skills/refactor in your project.

What does Refactor need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Refactor needs a shell for the scripts in its folder and the command-line tools its instructions call (git and bash). Our summary lists: Python 3; Node.js; A Bash shell. Its frontmatter pre-approves these tools: Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep, Bash(git *), Bash(find *), Bash(npm *), Bash(npx *), Bash(pnpm *), Bash(yarn *), Bash(pytest *), Bash(python3 *), Bash(go *), Bash(cargo *), Bash(make *), Bash(bundle *), Bash(rake *), Bash(bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/han-config-dir.sh").

Does Refactor access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use git, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Refactor 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. The check reads SKILL.md only: the scripts in the folder are not scanned, so read them before running anything.

What licence does Refactor use?

Refactor 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 Refactor use?

About 3.1k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 12k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 1.7k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Refactor?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Refactor: Tbd (jlevy/strif, 131 stars), Happier Implement (happier-dev/happier, 1.9k stars), Review And Simplify Changes (Dimillian/Skills, 4k stars) and Qe Pair Programming (proffesor-for-testing/agentic-qe, 494 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Refactor?

testdouble (a GitHub organization) maintains it in testdouble/han, which has 279 GitHub stars. The repository holds 54 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 1, 2026.

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