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Improve a codebase

Deliver small improvements one at a time, or one focused refactor, without a ticket

In this example you have Orbital improve a codebase without a ticket. Start the shipped improve-codebase workflow for one worthwhile improvement, or reduce-complexity for one focused refactor.

About five minutes to start. Both workflows stop after one improvement, or immediately when nothing worthwhile is found.

improve-codebase: discover a candidate, implement and deliver it, then stop; exit immediately when there is nothing to do.

Before you start

Section titled “Before you start”

1. Choose a workflow

Section titled “1. Choose a workflow”
Use When
improve-codebase You want one worthwhile improvement supported by evidence.
reduce-complexity You want one refactor of the most complex code.

2. Start the run

Section titled “2. Start the run”

Follow the part for the workflow you chose.

Run improve-codebase

Section titled “Run improve-codebase”

  1. Choose New task, pick the project and choose improve-codebase.

    The Start page asking what to do in a project, with a goal box, a harness picker, a workflow picker and a Chat or Workflow switch.
    Choose the workflow, then point it somewhere in the goal box.

  2. Point it somewhere, or leave the default goal, “Find and deliver one worthwhile improvement anywhere in the codebase.” To narrow it, write your own, such as Improve test coverage of the billing module.

  3. Choose Start run.

The run finds one worthwhile improvement, delivers it as a merged pull request, and stops after cleanup:

Step What it does
discover Looks for one worthwhile improvement and says why.
Deliver If it finds one, the run makes a worktree, implements the improvement with a review loop, and delivers the pull request to merge.
Clean up The run cleans up and ends.
No candidate If it finds nothing worth doing, the run ends immediately without creating a worktree.

Run reduce-complexity

Section titled “Run reduce-complexity”

  1. Choose New task, pick the project and choose reduce-complexity.

  2. Optionally write a goal, such as Only look at the src/api folder.

  3. Choose Start run.

reduce-complexity: pick a target, refactor it in a worktree, deliver it.

The pick step measures complexity and picks the function most worth simplifying. The run then refactors it in a worktree, delivers one pull request and stops.

What you get

Section titled “What you get”

improve-codebase delivers at most one improvement per run. When discovery finds nothing worthwhile, it succeeds without creating a worktree or pull request.

reduce-complexity leaves one pull request with the refactor, except in two cases:

Outcome When
Succeeded, without a worktree Nothing is worth simplifying.
Failed, without a pull request The refactor was not safe.

Run it on a schedule

Section titled “Run it on a schedule”

With the Triggers feature on, the ready-made rule “Improve the codebase every weekday morning” starts a run at 9:00 on weekdays. Its goal is “Find and make one small improvement to the codebase”. Choose improve-codebase, reduce-complexity or your own workflow for it. Each scheduled run of improve-codebase considers one improvement and ends. See triggers.

The New rule dialog set to a schedule of every weekday at 09:00, with the next run times listed.
A schedule rule lists its next runs before you save it.
Section titled “Related”