---
name: improve-codebase-architecture
description: Find deepening opportunities in a codebase. Use when the user wants to improve architecture, find refactoring opportunities, consolidate tightly-coupled modules, or make a codebase more testable and AI-navigable.
---

# 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.

## Glossary

Use these terms exactly in every suggestion. Consistent language is the point — don't drift into "component," "service," "API," or "boundary." Full definitions in [LANGUAGE.md](LANGUAGE.md).

- **Module** — anything with an interface and an implementation (function, class, package, slice).
- **Interface** — everything a caller must know to use the module: types, invariants, error modes, ordering, config. Not just the type signature.
- **Implementation** — the code inside.
- **Depth** — leverage at the interface: a lot of behaviour behind a small interface. **Deep** = high leverage. **Shallow** = interface nearly as complex as the implementation.
- **Seam** — where an interface lives; a place behaviour can be altered without editing in place. (Use this, not "boundary.")
- **Adapter** — a concrete thing satisfying an interface at a seam.
- **Leverage** — what callers get from depth.
- **Locality** — what maintainers get from depth: change, bugs, knowledge concentrated in one place.

Key principles (see [LANGUAGE.md](LANGUAGE.md) for the full list):

- **Deletion test**: imagine deleting the module. If complexity vanishes, it was a pass-through. If complexity reappears across N callers, it was earning its keep.
- **The interface is the test surface.**
- **One adapter = hypothetical seam. Two adapters = real seam.**

If the project has its own domain vocabulary (in code, types, or docs), use it for the domain — `LANGUAGE.md` vocabulary is only for the architecture layer.

## Process

### 1. Explore

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, the same template as before, but rendered as a card:

- **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 the project's own domain vocabulary, and [LANGUAGE.md](LANGUAGE.md) vocabulary for the architecture.** If the project's code or docs name an "Order," talk about "the Order intake module" — not "the FooBarHandler," and not "the Order service."

See [HTML-REPORT.md](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. Refine the chosen candidate

Once the user picks a candidate, walk the design tree with them — constraints, dependencies, the shape of the deepened module, what sits behind the seam, what tests survive. Load `interview:plan` for a structured interview.

If they want to explore alternative interfaces for the deepened module, see [INTERFACE-DESIGN.md](INTERFACE-DESIGN.md).