Ca refactor
Skill arbiterForge/codeArbiter/plugins/ca-codex/skills/ca-refactor
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What its author says it does
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Restructure code with behavioral parity proven through unmodified pre-existing tests, then refactor. No behavior change.
SKILL.md
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$ca-refactor — behavior-preserving restructure
The only permitted entry to refactor work. A refactor that cannot prove parity through unmodified pre-existing tests is a feature change in disguise and routes to $ca-feature. Two required parts: the surface (exact files, functions, classes, or methods — vague surfaces like "the auth module" are rejected) and the motivation (why the restructure is worth doing).
Flow
Routes to the refactor skill — six phases:
- Surface identification — lock the exact files, symbols, and public signatures.
- Parity coverage proof — demonstrate pre-existing tests already cover the named surface, with at least one direct test per public method.
- Red parity tests (conditional) — if the refactor exposes a new test seam, route to
tddPhase 1 to write failing tests pinning the seam's contract first. - Implementation — apply the restructure mechanically within the surface table; no new behavior, branches, error paths, or side effects.
- Parity verification — the full pre-existing suite passes with zero edits to any pre-existing test file.
- Lint / coverage gate — lint, type-check, and coverage clear; surface coverage MUST NOT regress.
Routes to
refactor (${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/routines/refactor/SKILL.md) — all six phases.
When NOT to use
- New behavior — a new branch, error path, side effect, public method beyond a Phase 3 seam, or a
change to what any input maps to →
$ca-feature. - A change motivated by "the current behavior is wrong" →
$ca-fix. - Questions or discussion →
$ca-btw. - Persisting an already-completed refactor →
$ca-commit.
Hard gate
No refactor proceeds without behavioral-parity coverage proof in Phase 2; if the surface is
under-covered, the skill halts and routes to tdd Phase 1 to backfill before resuming. A Phase 4 diff
that would classify as feat, or a Phase 5 verification that depends on edits to a pre-existing test,
terminates the refactor and re-routes to $ca-feature or $ca-fix.