Real file from a public repo · synced Sep 3, 2026
refactoring-patterns
Apply named refactoring transformations to improve code structure without changing behavior. Use when the user mentions "refactor this", "code smells", "extract method", "replace conditional", "technical debt", "move method", "inline variable", "decompose conditional", or "clean up this messy code". Also trigger when cleaning up legacy code, preparing code for new features by restructuring, or identifying which transformation fits a specific code smell. Covers smell-driven refactoring, safe transformation sequences, and testing guards. For code-quality foundations, see clean-code. For managing complexity, see software-design-philosophy.
Works with
Install in three steps
- 1
Download the ZIP
One file per agent, plus INSTALL.md with the exact paths below.
- 2
Claude Code: copy SKILL.md into your skills folder
.claude/skills/refactoring-patterns/SKILL.md # this project ~/.claude/skills/refactoring-patterns/SKILL.md # every project
- 3
Other agents: use the matching file
skill.mdc goes in Cursor’s .cursor/rules/. AGENTS.md works as GitHub Copilot instructions, a legacy .cursorrules, or a Codex / Gemini CLI instructions file.

