preparatory-refactor SKILL.md skillA

preparatory-refactor from stevepolitodesign/skills is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.

Install it, pinned
mdr add stevepolitodesign/skills/preparatory-refactor@git:20260926.c0ccd57

Pins git:20260926.c0ccd57 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.

Audit grade
A, 17 of 17 checks passed
Kind
SKILL.md skill
Repository
stevepolitodesign/skills
Path
preparatory-refactor/SKILL.md
Versions recorded
6
Latest version
git:20260926.c0ccd57, committed Sep 26, 2026
First version recorded
Aug 18, 2026
Size
9,753 bytes
Repository stars
10
License
none declared

Identify opportunities to introduce a refactor that would make a feature easy to implement.

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

# Preparatory refactoring

> Make the change easy, then make the easy change. — Kent Beck

You're looking for the refactorings *this* feature asks for. A preparatory refactoring earns its place by making the feature's diff smaller and more obvious, so if you can't show that, leave it out — a finding that stands on its own without the feature is a code review finding, and `/multi-lens-review` is where it goes.

You identify, you don't refactor. Nothing here edits code. The report has to survive being pasted into a session that has none of this conversation, which is the real constraint on how long it can be.

## Workflow

1. Get the feature.
2. Find where it lands — one angle, then two more running in the background.
3. Sketch the naive diff — what you'd touch if you just wrote it now.
4. Name the moves that shrink that diff.
5. Report the ones you'd defend.

### 1. Get the feature

The feature, if the user passed one: `$ARGUMENTS`
…

Read the whole file at its exact version.

How to install

The exact contents, by fingerprint
mdr add stevepolitodesign/skills/preparatory-refactor@sha256:f7b823b129ccd160

The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260926.c0ccd57, 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_wex6arzvycbzgntu.svg)](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_wex6arzvycbzgntu)

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

Versions

The registry has recorded 6 versions of this file, between Aug 18, 2026 and Sep 26, 2026, about one every 8 days.

versioncommittedcommitsizeaudit
git:20260926.c0ccd57 latest2026-09-26 c0ccd57 9,753 BA view · diff
git:20260916.62da9be2026-09-16 62da9be 9,731 BA view · diff
git:20260915.6a514262026-09-15 6a51426 8,441 BA view · diff
git:20260824.84f78a92026-08-24 84f78a9 8,472 BA view · diff
git:20260820.b81bd592026-08-20 b81bd59 8,075 BA view · diff
git:20260818.c2a61b72026-08-18 c2a61b7 6,019 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 (9753 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

stevepolitodesign/skills · 10 stars · license none declared · pushed 2026-11-05 · branch main

API

GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_wex6arzvycbzgntu
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=stevepolitodesign/skills/preparatory-refactor
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/f7b823b129ccd1605c16c0a2d80800a7ef56175813c02fd2f24e411fbca05117

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.

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Every file in stevepolitodesign/skills

Other files named preparatory-refactor

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