Improve Codebase Architecture

Scan a codebase for deepening opportunities, present them as a visual HTML report, then grill through whichever one you pick.

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Install

Claude Code plugin
/plugin marketplace add mattpocock/skills

The repo is a Claude Code plugin marketplace. Run /plugin afterwards to pick the plugin that includes this skill.

skills CLI (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and more)
npx skills add mattpocock/skills --skill improve-codebase-architecture
Manual install
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mattpocock/skills.git /tmp/skills
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/skills/skills/engineering/improve-codebase-architecture ~/.claude/skills/improve-codebase-architecture

Personal skills live in ~/.claude/skills. Use .claude/skills in a project folder to share a skill with your team.

From the SKILL.md

# 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:

- Call the Skill tool with "codebase-design" for the architecture vocabulary (**module**, **interface**, **depth**, **seam**, **adapter**, **leverage**, **locality**) and its principles (the deletion test, "the interface is the test surface", "one adapter = hypothetical seam, two = real"). Use these terms exactly in every suggestion, and don't drift into "component," "service," "API," or "boundary."
- The domain language in `GLOSSARY.md` gives names to good seams; ADRs in `docs/adr/` record decisions this command should not re-litigate.

## Process

### 1. Explore

**Scope before you scan: YAGNI.** Deepening a module pays off by making future changes to it easier, so put extra weight on the parts of the codebase that have recently changed. Decide *where* to look before you look:

- If the user named a direction (a module, a subsystem, a pain point), take it, and skip the inference below.
- Otherwise, walk back a good stretch of the commit history (`git log --oneline`) to find the codebase's hot spots, the files and areas that keep coming up, and let those paths pull your attention first. If the changes are scattered with no clear hot spot, widen the net.
Read the full skill on GitHub

Details

Skill name
improve-codebase-architecture
Path
skills/engineering/improve-codebase-architecture/SKILL.md
License
MIT
Repo updated
30 October 2026

FAQ

What does the Improve Codebase Architecture skill do?

Scan a codebase for deepening opportunities, present them as a visual HTML report, then grill through whichever one you pick.

How do I install the Improve Codebase Architecture skill?

Claude Code plugin: /plugin marketplace add mattpocock/skills. Skills go in ~/.claude/skills (personal) or .claude/skills (project), and Claude loads them automatically when a task matches the description.

Is Improve Codebase Architecture popular?

It lives in mattpocock/skills, which has 307,829 GitHub stars and 25,903 forks, and is included in 1 curated skill list.

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