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refactor-assist skill

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/skills/lxgicstudios/refactor-assist

This skill suggests targeted refactors with colored diffs to improve readability and quality in your code.

npx playbooks add skill openclaw/skills --skill refactor-assist

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SKILL.md

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---
name: refactor-assist
description: Get refactoring suggestions with colored diffs. Use when improving code quality.
---

# Refactor Assistant

Code review yourself before anyone else does. Point this at a file and get specific refactoring suggestions with diffs.

**One command. Zero config. Just works.**

## Quick Start

```bash
npx ai-refactor src/utils.ts
```

## What It Does

- Analyzes code for improvement opportunities
- Shows colored diffs for suggested changes
- Focuses on readability and patterns
- Can apply changes automatically

## Usage Examples

```bash
# See suggestions
npx ai-refactor src/utils.ts

# Apply changes directly
npx ai-refactor src/utils.ts --apply

# Focus on specific area
npx ai-refactor src/api.ts --focus "error handling"
```

## Best Practices

- **Review before applying** - verify suggestions make sense
- **Commit first** - have a clean state to diff against
- **Focus on one thing** - don't refactor everything at once
- **Run tests after** - make sure nothing broke

## When to Use This

- Code review prep
- Cleaning up old code
- Learning better patterns
- Technical debt sprints

## Part of the LXGIC Dev Toolkit

This is one of 110+ free developer tools built by LXGIC Studios. No paywalls, no sign-ups, no API keys on free tiers. Just tools that work.

**Find more:**
- GitHub: https://github.com/LXGIC-Studios
- Twitter: https://x.com/lxgicstudios
- Substack: https://lxgicstudios.substack.com
- Website: https://lxgic.dev

## Requirements

No install needed. Just run with npx. Node.js 18+ recommended. Needs OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable.

```bash
npx ai-refactor --help
```

## How It Works

Reads your file, sends it to GPT-4o-mini for analysis, and shows refactoring suggestions as diffs. Looks at readability, duplication, modern patterns, performance, and type safety.

## License

MIT. Free forever. Use it however you want.

Overview

This skill provides quick, actionable refactoring suggestions with colored diffs so you can improve code quality before a formal review. It runs with a single command and can show suggestions or apply them automatically. It focuses on readability, modern patterns, duplication removal, performance, and type safety.

How this skill works

Point the tool at a file and it reads the code, sends it to a language model for analysis, and returns specific refactor suggestions presented as colored diffs. You can preview changes or apply them directly; filters let you focus on specific concerns like error handling or performance. It supports running locally with minimal setup and uses diffs to make every suggestion easy to review.

When to use it

Preparing code for a peer review to catch style and structure issues early.
Cleaning up legacy files or modules during a technical debt sprint.
Learning improved patterns by comparing suggested changes to original code.
Before merging a feature to ensure readability and avoid regressions.
When you want to apply consistent modernizations across a codebase.

Best practices

Commit your current work before running suggestions so diffs are clean and reversible.
Review every suggested diff before applying; automated changes should be validated.
Limit scope per run—focus on one file or one concern to reduce risk.
Run your test suite after applying changes to catch functional regressions.
Use the focus option to target specific issues like error handling or type safety.

Example use cases

Run a quick pass on a utilities file to simplify complex conditional logic.
Refactor an API handler to improve error handling and reduce duplication.
Modernize older code by replacing callbacks with async/await and clearer flow.
Apply type annotations or type-safety improvements to reduce runtime errors.
Preview and accept suggested changes for consistent styling and naming.

FAQ

Do I need to install anything?

No installation required; run the tool via a single command using the package runner and ensure the environment key is available.

Can it apply changes automatically?

Yes — there is an option to apply changes directly, but you should review and commit first.