Refactoring Assistant Skill

Suggests appropriate refactoring patterns and guides their application to improve code quality, maintainability, and migration readiness.

Purpose

Enable guided refactoring for:

• Code quality improvement
• Design pattern application
• Migration preparation
• Technical debt reduction
• Maintainability enhancement

Capabilities

1. Extract Method/Class Suggestions

• Identify extraction candidates
• Suggest method boundaries
• Recommend class decomposition
• Guide interface extraction

2. Move Method Recommendations

• Detect misplaced methods
• Suggest target classes
• Analyze dependencies
• Guide safe relocation

3. Rename Refactoring

• Suggest meaningful names
• Propagate renames safely
• Handle cross-references
• Update documentation

4. Inline Refactoring

• Identify inline candidates
• Remove unnecessary indirection
• Simplify call chains
• Reduce complexity

5. Pull Up/Push Down Member

• Analyze inheritance hierarchies
• Suggest member movement
• Optimize class hierarchies
• Improve polymorphism

6. Design Pattern Application

• Recognize pattern opportunities
• Guide pattern implementation
• Suggest appropriate patterns
• Validate pattern application

Tool Integrations

Tool	Purpose	Integration Method
IDE Refactoring	Automated refactoring	CLI / API
Sourcery	AI-powered suggestions	CLI
Sourcegraph Cody	Code intelligence	API
IntelliJ IDEA	Java refactoring	CLI
VS Code	Multi-language	Extension API

Output Schema

{
  "analysisId": "string",
  "timestamp": "ISO8601",
  "suggestions": [
    {
      "type": "extract-method|move-method|rename|inline|design-pattern",
      "priority": "high|medium|low",
      "target": {
        "file": "string",
        "element": "string",
        "line": "number"
      },
      "description": "string",
      "rationale": "string",
      "steps": ["string"],
      "estimatedImpact": {
        "complexity": "string",
        "maintainability": "string",
        "testability": "string"
      },
      "risks": ["string"]
    }
  ],
  "patterns": {
    "applicable": ["string"],
    "opportunities": []
  }
}

Integration with Migration Processes

• code-refactoring: Primary refactoring guidance
• technical-debt-remediation: Debt reduction strategies

Related Skills

• code-smell-detector: Identifies refactoring needs
• codemod-executor: Automates refactorings

Related Agents

• code-transformation-executor: Executes suggested refactorings