Files
holocron/plugins/bin/.apm/skills/improve-codebase-architecture/SKILL.md
Defame1297 60be7b3232 refactor(skills): mandate metadata.version on every skill's frontmatter
Only 12 of 39 skills carried metadata.version, and adoption tracked
which plugin a skill lived in rather than any stated rule: core,
gitea and lint were consistent adopters, bin and kyberforge were
consistent non-adopters, git was split with one outlier. There was
no documented convention, and skill-author's own bump logic was
already written as if presence were conditional.

metadata.version is now required on every skill. The 19 skills here
that never carried one (bin, kyberforge, gitea-files) are seeded at
1.0.0, not 0.1.0 -- that value stays reserved for a skill's actual
creation point under skill-author's existing convention. The
skill-frontmatter pre-commit hook now fails a SKILL.md missing the
field, the same class of failure as a missing name/description.

Full rationale in the new ADR. The git-plugin skills that also need
this field follow in the next commit, bundled with issue #113's rtk
normalization since both touch the same files.

Refs: #127
ADR: 0022
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01EeH8SCbcrCAQrtymkNuhKP
2026-09-07 20:36:24 +00:00

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5.1 KiB
Markdown

---
name: improve-codebase-architecture
description: >
Use when the user wants to improve architecture, find refactoring
opportunities, consolidate tightly-coupled modules, or make a codebase more
testable and AI-navigable — deepening opportunities that turn shallow modules
into deep ones, informed by `CONTEXT.md` and `docs/adr/`. Not debugging a
failure -> `diagnose`.
metadata:
version: "1.0.0"
---
# Improve Codebase Architecture
Surface architectural friction and propose **deepening opportunities** — refactors that turn shallow modules into deep ones. The aim is testability and AI-navigability.
## Glossary
Use these terms exactly in every suggestion. Consistent language is the point — don't drift into "component," "service," "API," or "boundary."
- **Module** — anything with an interface and an implementation (function, class, package, slice).
- **Interface** — everything a caller must know to use the module: types, invariants, error modes, ordering, config. Not just the type signature.
- **Implementation** — the code inside.
- **Depth** — leverage at the interface: a lot of behaviour behind a small interface. **Deep** = high leverage. **Shallow** = interface nearly as complex as the implementation.
- **Seam** — where an interface lives; a place behaviour can be altered without editing in place. (Use this, not "boundary.")
- **Adapter** — a concrete thing satisfying an interface at a seam.
- **Leverage** — what callers get from depth.
- **Locality** — what maintainers get from depth: change, bugs, knowledge concentrated in one place.
Key principles:
- **Deletion test**: imagine deleting the module. If complexity vanishes, it was a pass-through. If complexity reappears across N callers, it was earning its keep.
- **The interface is the test surface.**
- **One adapter = hypothetical seam. Two adapters = real seam.**
If a term or principle above is ambiguous in the case in front of you, or you need the definitions and the principles the two lists leave out, read `LANGUAGE.md`.
This skill is _informed_ by the project's domain model. The domain language gives names to good seams; ADRs record decisions the skill should not re-litigate.
## Process
### 1. Explore
Read the project's domain glossary and any ADRs in the area you're touching first.
Then use the Agent tool with `subagent_type=Explore` to walk the codebase. Don't follow rigid heuristics — explore organically and note where you experience friction:
- Where does understanding one concept require bouncing between many small modules?
- Where are modules **shallow** — interface nearly as complex as the implementation?
- Where have pure functions been extracted just for testability, but the real bugs hide in how they're called (no **locality**)?
- Where do tightly-coupled modules leak across their seams?
- Which parts of the codebase are untested, or hard to test through their current interface?
Apply the **deletion test** to anything you suspect is shallow: would deleting it concentrate complexity, or just move it? A "yes, concentrates" is the signal you want.
### 2. Present candidates
Present a numbered list of deepening opportunities. For each candidate:
- **Files** — which files/modules are involved
- **Problem** — why the current architecture is causing friction
- **Solution** — plain English description of what would change
- **Benefits** — explained in terms of locality and leverage, and also in how tests would improve
**Use CONTEXT.md vocabulary for the domain, and the architecture glossary above for the architecture.** If `CONTEXT.md` defines "Order," talk about "the Order intake module" — not "the FooBarHandler," and not "the Order service."
**ADR conflicts**: if a candidate contradicts an existing ADR, only surface it when the friction is real enough to warrant revisiting the ADR. Mark it clearly (e.g. _"contradicts ADR-0007 — but worth reopening because…"_). Don't list every theoretical refactor an ADR forbids.
Do NOT propose interfaces yet. Ask the user: "Which of these would you like to explore?"
### 3. Grilling loop
Once the user picks a candidate, drop into a grilling conversation. Walk the design tree with them — constraints, dependencies, the shape of the deepened module, what sits behind the seam, what tests survive.
Side effects happen inline as decisions crystallize:
- **Naming a deepened module after a concept not in `CONTEXT.md`?** Add the term to `CONTEXT.md` — same discipline as `grill-with-docs`, in the format `grill-with-docs`'s `CONTEXT-FORMAT.md` defines. Create the file lazily if it doesn't exist.
- **Sharpening a fuzzy term during the conversation?** Update `CONTEXT.md` right there.
- **User rejects the candidate with a load-bearing reason?** Offer an ADR, framed as: _"Want me to record this as an ADR so future architecture reviews don't re-suggest it?"_ Only offer when the reason would actually be needed by a future explorer to avoid re-suggesting the same thing — skip ephemeral reasons ("not worth it right now") and self-evident ones. See `grill-with-docs`'s `ADR-FORMAT.md`.
- **Want to explore alternative interfaces for the deepened module?** Read `INTERFACE-DESIGN.md`.