Refactor by Chrollo

Improve existing skills by hunting for better external implementations and synthesizing improvements.

Prerequisites

Requires claude-skills-mcp MCP server. See /rcc:chrollo for installation.

Process

1. Identify Skills to Refactor

If {skill-path} is provided, target that skill. Otherwise, analyze all:

find . -name "SKILL.md" -type f

For each skill, assess:

• Quality issues (too long, unclear, outdated)
• Missing capabilities that external skills might have
• Potential for improvement

2. Search External Alternatives

For each skill to refactor, use Chrollo's hunting approach:

find_helpful_skills(query: "[skill's core capability]")

For example:

• write-skill → search "skill authoring best practices"
• write-rules → search "code conventions rules"
• agent-architect → search "architecture decision"

3. Compare and Analyze

For promising external skills, first list available files:

read_skill_document(skill_name: "...")

Then read relevant content:

read_skill_document(skill_name: "...", document_path: "SKILL.md")
read_skill_document(skill_name: "...", document_path: "references/*")

Create comparison matrix:

Aspect	Current Skill	External Skill	Winner
Clarity
Completeness
Best practices
Integration

4. Synthesize Improvements

Don't replace wholesale. Instead:

1. Extract superior patterns from external skill
2. Preserve project-specific adaptations
3. Merge the best of both
4. Validate against project conventions

Use /rcc:improve-skill {skill-path} with insights from external skills.

5. Apply Refactoring

For each skill improvement:

## Changes from External Skill: [name]
- Added: [new capability/pattern]
- Improved: [enhanced section]
- Preserved: [project-specific content kept]

6. Validate Results

python3 skills/write-skill/scripts/validate_skill.py <skill-path>

Check:

• Still < 200 lines
• Project conventions maintained
• No broken references to other skills
• Integration with existing workflow preserved

Output Format

## Refactor by Chrollo Report

### Skills Analyzed: N

### External Skills Consulted
- [external-skill]: used for [which local skill]

### Improvements Made
| Local Skill | External Source | Changes |
|-------------|-----------------|---------|
| [name] | [source] | [brief] |

### Unchanged (No Better Alternative)
- [skill-name]: [reason]

### Summary
- Skills improved: X
- External skills referenced: Y
- Total patterns borrowed: Z

Example Usage

# Refactor specific skill
/rcc:refactor-by-chrollo skills/write-skill

# Refactor all skills
/rcc:refactor-by-chrollo

Difference from /rcc:refactor-skills

Aspect	refactor-skills	refactor-by-chrollo
Focus	Internal consolidation	External improvement
Action	Merge/delete redundant	Enhance with external patterns
Source	Project skills only	Claude Skills library
Goal	Reduce duplication	Increase quality

Use together: refactor-skills to consolidate, then refactor-by-chrollo to enhance.