safe-refactor SKILL.md skillA

safe-refactor from juliusbrussee/caveman is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.

Install it, pinned
mdr add juliusbrussee/caveman/safe-refactor@git:20260811.82864c8

Pins git:20260811.82864c8 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.

Audit grade
A, 17 of 17 checks passed
Kind
SKILL.md skill
Repository
juliusbrussee/caveman
Path
skills/safe-refactor/SKILL.md
Versions recorded
1
Latest version
git:20260811.82864c8, committed Aug 11, 2026
Size
705 bytes
Repository stars
118,366
License
Apache-2.0

Restructure code while preserving behavior. Use for extraction, consolidation, ownership moves, or cleanup where verification must bracket structural edits.

Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.

What the file says

# Safe refactor

Define behavior-preservation boundary and establish verification before structural edits.

- Keep feature changes outside refactor.
- Move one ownership boundary at a time.
- Preserve public interfaces, failure behavior, ordering, and compatibility unless explicitly scoped.
- Keep intermediate states buildable and testable.
- Avoid dependency or configuration growth without correctness need.

Run same proof after change. Stop when behavior matches and requested structure is achieved.

Read the whole file at its exact version.

How to install

The exact contents, by fingerprint
mdr add juliusbrussee/caveman/safe-refactor@sha256:cd52867aba26aafb

The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260811.82864c8, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.

Badge

mdr badge

[![mdr](https://markdownregistry.com/badge/art_d6ldba2kbbhqvsxf.svg)](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_d6ldba2kbbhqvsxf)

8 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.

Versions

The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Aug 11, 2026.

versioncommittedcommitsizeaudit
git:20260811.82864c8 latest2026-08-11 82864c8 705 BA view

Audit of the latest version

A  17 of 17 checks passed. Fixed automatic checks with no AI involved, so the same checks give the same answer every run.
  • pass: Frontmatter block present
  • pass: Frontmatter declares a name
  • pass: Frontmatter declares a description
  • pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (705 bytes)
  • pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
  • pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
  • pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
  • pass: No credential-shaped string
  • pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
  • pass: No text hidden with inline styles
  • pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
  • pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
  • pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
  • pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
  • pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
  • pass: No link to a raw IP address
  • pass: No script tag

Source

GitHub

juliusbrussee/caveman · 118,366 stars · license Apache-2.0 · pushed 2026-11-08 · branch main

API

GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_d6ldba2kbbhqvsxf
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=juliusbrussee/caveman/safe-refactor
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/cd52867aba26aafb53379d43068cef9b2feca3a3fff850f877a99f710ccd02c0

Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.

Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.

More from juliusbrussee/caveman

AGENTS.md AGENTS.md file
juliusbrussee/caveman · AGENTS.md
git:20261106.e45976c · audit A · 118,366 stars
CLAUDE.md CLAUDE.md file
juliusbrussee/caveman · CLAUDE.md
git:20261106.af560e1 · audit B · 118,366 stars
CLAUDE.md@browse CLAUDE.md file
juliusbrussee/caveman · browse/CLAUDE.md
git:20260816.f71f6df · audit A · 118,366 stars
AGENTS.md@engine AGENTS.md file
juliusbrussee/caveman · engine/AGENTS.md
git:20260812.d4ef06b · audit A · 118,366 stars
CLAUDE.md@engine CLAUDE.md file
juliusbrussee/caveman · engine/CLAUDE.md
git:20261106.3dfdbd1 · audit A · 118,366 stars
AGENTS.md@extension AGENTS.md file
juliusbrussee/caveman · extension/AGENTS.md
git:20261003.2ec7194 · audit A · 118,366 stars
CLAUDE.md@extension CLAUDE.md file
juliusbrussee/caveman · extension/CLAUDE.md
git:20261003.2ec7194 · audit A · 118,366 stars
CLAUDE.md@integrations CLAUDE.md file
juliusbrussee/caveman · integrations/CLAUDE.md
git:20260812.d4ef06b · audit A · 118,366 stars
AGENTS.md@mcp AGENTS.md file
juliusbrussee/caveman · mcp/AGENTS.md
git:20260924.921eab8 · audit A · 118,366 stars
CLAUDE.md@mcp CLAUDE.md file
juliusbrussee/caveman · mcp/CLAUDE.md
git:20260924.921eab8 · audit A · 118,366 stars
AGENTS.md@mem AGENTS.md file
juliusbrussee/caveman · mem/AGENTS.md
git:20260924.921eab8 · audit A · 118,366 stars
CLAUDE.md@mem CLAUDE.md file
juliusbrussee/caveman · mem/CLAUDE.md
git:20261025.777bb73 · audit A · 118,366 stars

Every file in juliusbrussee/caveman

Other files named safe-refactor

safe-refactor SKILL.md skill
gems-uff/noworkflow · .claude/skills/safe-refactor/SKILL.md · Measures the effect of a change locally, comparing the test suite before and after it. Use when refactoring, updating a…
git:20261019.85a4863 · audit A · 130 stars
safe-refactor SKILL.md skill
jpeetz/agent-skills · skills/development/safe-refactor/SKILL.md · Use this skill when refactoring code — change structure without changing behavior, in small verified steps with tests…
v1.0.0 · audit A · 16 stars
safe-refactor SKILL.md skill
yeaight7/agent-powerups · plugins/codebase-maintenance/skills/safe-refactor/SKILL.md · Use when code needs restructuring without changing observable behavior.
git:20260606.26a6bfa · audit A · 8 stars

Browse by kind, by grade A, or by owner.