alt Hacker NewsOne trick I've found that works well is to tell it to refactor, e.g for Python:
Refactor the Python code to make it more Pythonic, e.g. fewer classes/singletons, especially if it will provide a speedup. The Python code **MUST** follow code organization standards expected of popular open-source Python packages code without causing any benchmark performance regressions.
The Rust codebase in `/src` has become bloated with several files >1k LoC. Refactor the Rust codebase to fit code organization standards expected of popular open-source Rust code without causing any benchmark performance regressions.
In terms of benchmark performance it generally improves after the refactor which I suspect is coincidental (especially in Rust where it shouldn't matter due to compiling) but I'm not complaining.
Replies
Asking it to apply the YAGNI principle also sems to work well for trimming codebases down. Generally ask it to review, generate a list of review points, then we go through each one together and I make a decision yes/no on each one (or suggest further modifications).
I can totally see doing this incrementally, but this seems extremely risky to do for the entire codebase in one shot on anything in production. Especially if you don’t have really thoughtful e2e tests of the whole system.
I just say "refactor the codebase" and that also works pretty good!
I have my code styling rules in my CLAUDE.md already anyway
Have you tried telling it:
“Write perfect code, make no mistakes”
I use this one in my Ralph Harness all the time, it’s a classic!
It’s not that it can’t do that, it’s just that you haven’t told it to!
yeah, me too. I usually ask it to do a code review using SOLID standards and it usually does a good job, if not a little overkill sometimes.
Exactly. Simply asking agentic coding tools to clean up code bases, to do some targeted refactorings, to enforce things like SOLID principles, and other good practices can result in a lot of easy improvements.
I've noticed a thing where by default, agentic coding tools are reluctant to remove code. Even when you tell them to. It will bend over backwards to keep old code around, to add complexity for allowing that code to still be called, etc. Super annoying if you are basically just prototyping. You basically end up with a lot of dead code, which than confuses things when you try to add to it. But once you know this, you can just ask it to get rid of the legacy stuff.
Keeping the code base clean, actually stimulates AIs to do the right thing. If there are lots of tests, it will add more when creating new functionality. If there's documentation, it will update that without needing to be prompted as well.
As code harnesses improve, a lot of this is probably being built in as well. Which means even less experienced prompters can get decent results.