Refactoring Standards

Refactoring must produce measurable improvements in maintainability.
Use the CodeScene MCP to assess whether a refactor is an objective improvement.

Required Behavior

Before refactoring:

• Run codescene.code_health_review to identify problem areas.
• Capture the current codescene.code_health_score so the work starts from a measurable baseline.

During refactoring

• Prefer small, incremental improvements that are easy to review and validate.
• Focus on structural refactorings that reduce responsibilities, nesting, coupling, and hard-to-follow control flow.
• Do not treat formatting, renaming, or other cosmetic cleanup alone as meaningful Code Health improvement.

After refactoring:

• Re-run codescene.code_health_review after each meaningful step to ensure identified issues were actually improved and confirm no Code Health regression.
• Use codescene.code_health_score as the compact trend check across iterations.

Success Criteria

A refactoring is successful only if:

• Code Health improves or at minimum does not decline.
• Readability and structure are improved.
• No new technical debt is introduced.

Code Health 10.0 is the ideal long-term target. Aim for measurable progress toward it even when a full uplift is not realistic in one pass.

Business Alignment

When asked about the value of a refactoring:

• Use codescene.code_health_refactoring_business_case
  to explain expected productivity gains, risk reduction, or change cost improvements.

Refactoring must be justified, measurable, and verified using CodeScene’s Code Health metrics.