working-effectively-with-legacy-code

Plugin working-effectively-with-legacy-code from marketplace bookforge-skills in bookforge-ai/bookforge-skills. Commands read from the repo's manifest — 1 month ago.

Skills (16)

• big-class-responsibility-extraction

  Identify and extract responsibilities from an oversized class using Feathers' 7 heuristics + feature sketches. Use whenever a developer faces 'this class is too big', 'god class', 'monster class', '500-line class', 'class with 50+ methods', 'class with too many responsibilities', 'SRP violation', 'h

• change-effect-analysis

  Trace the blast radius of a legacy code change and produce a test placement plan with pinch points. Use whenever a developer needs to decide WHERE to write tests for a pending change — 'what should I test?', 'where to test?', 'how far do the effects propagate?', 'what else could this break?', 'how t

• characterization-test-writing

  Write tests that pin down the actual current behavior of untested legacy code as a safety net for change. Use whenever a developer needs to create a regression safety net before modifying code — 'I don't know what tests to write', 'what should I test in legacy code', 'how do I write tests for code I

• dependency-breaking-technique-executor

  Select and execute the right dependency-breaking technique from Michael Feathers' catalog of 24 named techniques (Part III of Working Effectively with Legacy Code) for a specific testability obstacle. Use when a class or method cannot be placed under test due to a hard-coded dependency, and you need

• duplication-removal-via-extraction

  Remove duplicated code across methods and classes by extracting small shared utilities first and letting larger structure (superclass, Template Method) emerge. Use whenever a developer says 'I'm changing the same code in multiple places', 'I'm fixing the same bug in 3 files', 'copy-pasted code every

• legacy-code-addition-techniques

  Add new functionality to untested legacy code using Sprout Method, Sprout Class, Wrap Method, or Wrap Class — whichever best fits the dependency profile. Use whenever a developer needs to add a feature, log statement, validation, or any new behavior to legacy code that they can't easily test — 'I ha

• legacy-code-change-algorithm

  Guide safe modification of legacy code (untested production code) using Feathers' 5-step Legacy Code Change Algorithm. Use this skill whenever a developer needs to change code that lacks test coverage — adding a feature, fixing a bug, refactoring, or optimizing — and wants to avoid regressions. Acti

• legacy-code-symptom-router

  Diagnose any legacy-code situation in plain language and route to the right technique. Use as the FIRST skill when a developer has a vague or specific complaint about a codebase — 'I have to change this but there are no tests', 'this method is huge', 'can't test this class', 'library is killing us',

• library-seam-wrapper

  Isolate third-party library dependencies behind thin wrapper interfaces to break vendor lock-in and enable testing. Use whenever a developer has direct calls to library classes scattered through production code and can't test or swap the library — 'library is killing me', 'vendor lock-in', 'can't mo

• monster-method-decomposition

  Decompose a very large method (100+ lines, deeply nested) safely using automated refactoring and Feathers' Bulleted/Snarled classification. Use whenever a developer faces 'a huge method', 'I have a 500-line function', 'deeply nested conditionals', 'monster method', 'god method', 'need to break up th

• safe-legacy-editing-discipline

  Apply 4 editing disciplines when modifying legacy code: Hyperaware Editing, Single-Goal Editing, Preserve Signatures, Lean on the Compiler. Use whenever a developer is about to edit untested code, refactor without a safety net, or is caught in avoidance anti-patterns (Edit-and-Pray, Minimization Fre

• scratch-refactoring-for-code-understanding

  Guide a developer through throwaway refactoring — restructure code freely without tests to understand it, then DISCARD. Use whenever a developer says 'I don't understand this code', 'this code is too complex to change safely', 'need to read legacy code', 'can't figure out what this does', 'overwhelm

• seam-type-selector

  Select the right seam type (Preprocessor / Link / Object) for breaking a dependency in legacy code. Use whenever a developer needs to substitute behavior for testing without editing in place, is choosing between dependency-injection strategies in an existing codebase, or asks 'how do I intercept thi

• tdd-and-programming-by-difference

  Add features to tested code using TDD or Programming by Difference. Use whenever a developer is adding a feature to a class that already has tests (or can be brought under test) — 'how do I add this feature', 'test-driven development for legacy', 'red green refactor', 'TDD cycle', 'add behavior with

• test-harness-entry-diagnostics

  Diagnose exactly why a class or method cannot be placed under test and route to the right dependency-breaking technique. Use whenever a developer says 'I can't instantiate this class in tests', 'the test harness won't compile', 'this class has too many constructor dependencies', 'the constructor con

• unit-test-quality-checker

  Evaluate a test suite against rigorous unit-test criteria, classify test types, and choose between fake and mock objects. Use whenever a developer asks 'are these unit tests?', 'why is my test suite slow', 'should I use mocks or fakes', 'fake vs mock', 'what's wrong with my tests', 'my tests hit the

Hooks (1)

• SessionStart

  ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/session-start

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