improve-codebase-architecture

name	improve-codebase-architecture
description	Scan a codebase for deepening opportunities, present them as a visual HTML report, then grill through whichever one you pick.
disable-model-invocation	true

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.

This command is informed by the project's domain model and built on a shared design vocabulary:

• Run the /codebase-design skill for the architecture vocabulary and its principles. Use these terms exactly in every suggestion.
• The domain language in CONTEXT.md gives names to good seams.

Process

1. Explore

Read the project's domain glossary (CONTEXT.md) 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 as an HTML report

Write a self-contained HTML file to the OS temp directory so nothing lands in the repo. Resolve the temp dir from $TMPDIR, falling back to /tmp (or %TEMP% on Windows), and write to <tmpdir>/architecture-review-<timestamp>.html so each run gets a fresh file. Open it for the user --- xdg-open <path> on Linux, open <path> on macOS, start <path> on Windows --- and tell them the absolute path.

The report uses Tailwind via CDN for layout and styling, and Mermaid via CDN for diagrams where a graph/flow/sequence reliably communicates the structure. Mix Mermaid with hand-crafted CSS/SVG visuals --- use Mermaid when relationships are graph-shaped (call graphs, dependencies, sequences), and hand-built divs/SVG when you want something more editorial (mass diagrams, cross-sections, collapse animations). Each candidate gets a before/after visualisation. Be visual.

For each candidate, render a card with:

• 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 how tests would improve.
• Before / After diagram --- side-by-side, custom-drawn, illustrating the shallowness and the deepening.
• Recommendation strength --- one of Strong, Worth exploring, Speculative, rendered as a badge.

End the report with a Top recommendation section: which candidate you'd tackle first and why.

Use CONTEXT.md vocabulary for the domain, and the /codebase-design vocabulary for the architecture. If CONTEXT.md defines "Order," talk about "the Order intake module" --- not "the FooBarHandler," and not "the Order service."

See HTML_REPORT.md for the full HTML scaffold, diagram patterns, and styling guidance.

Do NOT propose interfaces yet. After the file is written, ask the user: "Which of these would you like to explore?"

3. Grilling loop

Once the user picks a candidate, run the /grilling skill to 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 --- run the /embroiderly-context skill to keep the domain model current as you go:

• Naming a deepened module after a concept not in CONTEXT.md? Add the term to CONTEXT.md. Create the file lazily if it doesn't exist.
• Sharpening a fuzzy term during the conversation? Update CONTEXT.md right there.
• Want to explore alternative interfaces for the deepened module? Run the /codebase-design skill and use its design-it-twice parallel sub-agent pattern.