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preparatory-refactor skillA

preparatory-refactor is agent-read markdown (skill) from stevepolitodesign/skills: Identify opportunities to introduce a refactor that would make a feature easy to implement..

Indexed from public GitHub and served as immutable, content-addressed versions. Install it pinned to an exact SHA-256 with the mdr CLI, and every file is verified against the hash recorded here before it reaches your agent. The deterministic audit below grades the latest version, and the same file always earns 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 `/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

Latest version
mdr add stevepolitodesign/skills/preparatory-refactor@git:20260916.62da9be
Exact content
mdr add stevepolitodesign/skills/preparatory-refactor@sha256:51488a5d14112ac8

Pin to a label to follow the author's releases, or to a sha256 to freeze the exact bytes forever. Either way the resolved hash is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install reproduces it on any machine.

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Versions

versioncommittedcommitsizeaudit
git:20260916.62da9be latest2026-09-16 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. Deterministic, no model, 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 (9731 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 · 3 stars · license none · pushed 2026-09-24 · 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/51488a5d14112ac832412f71a8d9d124b6a3dfea3462b62fee377c32cbeeb04f

Your agent 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.

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