Code Improvement & Cleanup Skill Skill

Code Improvement & Cleanup Skill

Systematic improvements with multi-persona expertise and safety validation.

Quick Start

# Quality improvement
/sc:improve src/ --type quality --safe

# Performance optimization
/sc:improve api-endpoints --type performance

# Dead code cleanup
/sc:improve src/ --cleanup --type code --safe

# Import optimization
/sc:improve --cleanup --type imports

Behavioral Flow

Analyze - Examine codebase for improvement opportunities
Plan - Choose approach and activate relevant personas
Execute - Apply systematic improvements
Validate - Ensure functionality preservation
Document - Generate improvement summary

Flags

| Flag | Type | Default | Description | |------|------|---------|-------------| | --type | string | quality | quality, performance, maintainability, style, principles, code, imports, files, all | | --cleanup | bool | false | Enable cleanup mode | | --safe | bool | true | Conservative with safety validation | | --aggressive | bool | false | Thorough cleanup (use with caution) | | --preview | bool | false | Show changes without applying | | --interactive | bool | false | Guided decision mode |

Personas Activated

architect - Structure and design improvements
performance - Optimization expertise
quality - Code quality and maintainability
security - Security pattern application
code-warden - KISS and Purity enforcement (with --type principles)

MCP Integration

PAL MCP (Validation & Analysis)

| Tool | When to Use | Purpose | |------|-------------|---------| | mcp__pal__consensus | Complex refactors | Multi-model validation before major changes | | mcp__pal__codereview | Quality assessment | Review improvement quality and safety | | mcp__pal__thinkdeep | Architecture changes | Deep analysis of structural improvements | | mcp__pal__precommit | Before commit | Validate all changes preserve functionality | | mcp__pal__debug | Regression issues | Root cause analysis if improvements break things | | mcp__pal__challenge | Aggressive mode | Critical evaluation of aggressive cleanup decisions |

PAL Usage Patterns

# Consensus for major refactor
mcp__pal__consensus(
    models=[
        {"model": "gpt-5.2", "stance": "for"},
        {"model": "gemini-3-pro", "stance": "against"}
    ],
    step="Evaluate: Should we extract this into a separate module?"
)

# Review after improvements
mcp__pal__codereview(
    review_type="full",
    step="Reviewing code improvements",
    findings="Quality, maintainability, backwards compatibility",
    relevant_files=["/src/refactored/module.py"]
)

# Pre-commit validation
mcp__pal__precommit(
    path="/path/to/repo",
    step="Validating refactoring changes",
    confidence="high"
)

Rube MCP (Automation & Tracking)

| Tool | When to Use | Purpose | |------|-------------|---------| | mcp__rube__RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS | External tools | Find linters, formatters, analyzers | | mcp__rube__RUBE_MULTI_EXECUTE_TOOL | Notifications | Update tickets, notify team | | mcp__rube__RUBE_CREATE_UPDATE_RECIPE | Reusable workflows | Save improvement patterns |

Rube Usage Patterns

# Notify team of improvements
mcp__rube__RUBE_MULTI_EXECUTE_TOOL(tools=[
    {"tool_slug": "SLACK_SEND_MESSAGE", "arguments": {
        "channel": "#refactoring",
        "text": "Completed: Dead code cleanup removed 500 lines"
    }},
    {"tool_slug": "JIRA_UPDATE_ISSUE", "arguments": {
        "issue_key": "TECH-456",
        "status": "Done"
    }}
])

# Create improvement report in Notion
mcp__rube__RUBE_MULTI_EXECUTE_TOOL(tools=[
    {"tool_slug": "NOTION_CREATE_PAGE", "arguments": {
        "title": "Refactoring Report - Q4 2025",
        "content": "## Summary\n- Lines removed: 500\n- Complexity reduced: 25%"
    }}
])

Evidence Requirements

This skill requires evidence. You MUST:

Show before/after code comparisons
Run tests to verify functionality preservation
Report metrics (lines removed, complexity reduction)

Improvement Types

Quality (`--type quality`)

Technical debt reduction
Code structure improvements
Readability enhancements

Performance (`--type performance`)

Bottleneck resolution
Algorithm optimization
Resource efficiency

Maintainability (`--type maintainability`)

Complexity reduction
Documentation improvements
Modular restructuring

Style (`--type style`)

Formatting consistency
Naming conventions
Pattern alignment

Principles (`--type principles`)

KISS compliance improvements (reduce complexity, extract methods)
Purity enforcement (separate I/O from logic)
Guard clause refactoring (reduce nesting)
Functional core extraction (move I/O to shell layer)

Validators:

# Run KISS validation
python .claude/skills/sc-principles/scripts/validate_kiss.py --scope-root . --json

# Run Purity validation
python .claude/skills/sc-principles/scripts/validate_purity.py --scope-root . --json

Cleanup Mode (`--cleanup`)

Code Cleanup (`--type code`)

Dead code detection and removal
Unused variable elimination
Unreachable code removal

Import Cleanup (`--type imports`)

Unused import removal
Import organization
Dependency optimization

File Cleanup (`--type files`)

Empty file removal
Orphaned file detection
Structure optimization

Full Cleanup (`--type all`)

Comprehensive cleanup
All categories combined
Multi-persona coordination

Safety Modes

Safe Mode (`--safe`)

Conservative changes only
Automatic safety validation
Preserves all functionality

Aggressive Mode (`--aggressive`)

Thorough cleanup
Framework-aware patterns
Requires careful review

Examples

Safe Quality Improvement

/sc:improve src/ --type quality --safe
# Technical debt reduction with safety validation

Performance Optimization

/sc:improve api-endpoints --type performance --interactive
# Guided optimization with profiling analysis

Dead Code Cleanup

/sc:improve src/ --cleanup --type code --safe
# Remove unused code with dependency validation

Preview Changes

/sc:improve --cleanup --type imports --preview
# Show what would be removed without executing

Tool Coordination

Read/Grep/Glob - Code analysis
Edit/MultiEdit - Safe modifications
TodoWrite - Progress tracking
Task - Large-scale improvement delegation

Agent Skills: Code Improvement & Cleanup Skill

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Skill Files