| name | check-refactor |
| description | Phase 6 refactor pass — improve reuse, simplification, and clarity of the changed code without changing behavior. Quality only; does not hunt for bugs. Use when: cleaning up a change after review, reducing duplication/complexity in the current task's code, improving names/clarity, or a behavior-preserving tidy-up before verify. |
One-Liner
Behavior-preserving cleanup of the current change only: unify duplication, cut needless complexity,
fix misleading names — in small steps with tests green throughout. Never change behavior here.
Input: the changed code for the current task. Behavior must stay identical.
Look for
- Duplication that can be unified; dead code to remove.
- Needless complexity — over-abstraction, deep nesting, long functions to split.
- Naming/clarity — names that mislead; comments that restate code instead of explaining why.
- Altitude — leaking low-level detail through a high-level interface.
Rules
- Behavior-preserving only. If a change alters behavior, it belongs in
workflow-bugfix or a feature.
- Tests must stay green throughout; refactor in small steps.
- Do not expand scope — this is cleanup of the current change, not the whole codebase.
Examples (Bad vs Good)
def total(items):
return sum(i.price for i in items if i.price)
def total(items):
return sum(item.price for item in items)
Handoff
Re-run the task's tests after refactoring; note the cleanup in evidence ## Review. This is the
quality complement to check-code-review (which finds bugs).
Gate: the task's tests are green again and behavior is unchanged; cleanup noted in ## Review.
