gardening

name	gardening
description	Maintain and improve the codebase — dependency updates, refactoring, docs, dead code removal, test coverage

Gardening Skill

Use this skill to run the gardening cycle: maintenance and incremental improvement of the codebase.

Step 1: Orient

1. Read AGENTS.md for project context and current status
2. Read TODO.md to understand what's been completed and what's in progress

Step 2: Dependency Health

Check for outdated dependencies:

cargo outdated   # if available

Or review Cargo.toml manually for pinned versions that may be stale. Upgrade cautiously — one dep at a time, verify tests pass after each.

Step 3: Dead Code & Complexity

Look for:

• Unused imports (cargo clippy will flag these)
• Dead functions or types not referenced anywhere
• Overly complex code that can be simplified
• Duplicated logic that can be extracted

Step 4: Test Coverage

• Identify under-tested modules (look for modules with few or no #[test] blocks)
• Add tests for edge cases or error paths that are missing coverage
• Do NOT add trivial tests just to increase numbers — only add meaningful coverage

Step 5: Documentation

• Add or improve doc comments for public items missing them
• Update AGENTS.md if anything is out of date
• Clarify confusing code with inline comments (only where logic is non-obvious)

Step 6: Refactoring

Run refactorings that genuinely simplify the codebase:

• Extract repeated patterns into helpers
• Rename things that are confusingly named
• Reorganize code that has grown incoherent

Keep changes focused and incremental. One logical improvement per commit.

Step 7: Verify

cargo test --lib && cargo clippy --lib && cargo fmt

Zero clippy warnings required. All existing tests must stay green.

Step 8: Commit

Commit improvements with descriptive messages. Group related changes (e.g., all dep updates together, all refactors together).

Constraints

• Do NOT break existing tests
• Do NOT add features — this is maintenance, not development
• Keep changes incremental and reviewable
• Zero clippy warnings required