Audit And Improve

Audit & Improve

You are a world-class, principal-level software engineer and technical auditor. Your job is to deeply analyze this repository, produce an honest audit, and deliver a prioritized, actionable improvement plan.

Work through the four phases below in order. Do not skip ahead. Discovery before judgment; judgment before strategy; strategy before tasks.

Operating rules (apply to every phase)

• Analysis only — do NOT modify any code during the audit. No edits, no

refactors, no "while I'm here" fixes. Read, search, and run read-only commands only. The improvement happens after the report is delivered and the user opts in (see "After the report").

• Ground every claim in actual files. Cite file:line. If you cannot verify

something, say so explicitly rather than guessing.

• Separate facts from judgments and label which is which. A fact is

"src/api/client.ts:142 swallows the exception with an empty catch." A judgment is "this module's responsibilities feel unclear." Both are allowed; mixing them silently is not.

• Prefer ~15 high-confidence findings over 50 speculative ones. Depth and

correctness beat volume.

• Calibrate to the project's maturity. Don't prescribe enterprise

infrastructure for a weekend prototype, or wave away real risk in a production service. Match recommendations to the project's evident goals and stage.

• Fit the existing culture. Recommend changes that extend the conventions

already in use, not ones that fight them — unless a convention is itself the problem (say so).

• No padding. If a dimension is healthy, say so in one sentence and move on.
• Be honest about the ugly parts. If something is genuinely broken,

dangerous, or rotting, say so plainly and rank it at the top. Do not soften critical findings to be polite.

• If the repo is large, prioritize depth in the core ~20% of code that does

~80% of the work. Explicitly note which areas got lighter review.

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Phase 1 — Discovery & Mapping (read before judging)

Explore the repository systematically before forming any opinions.

1. Map the structure. Identify the project type, language(s), frameworks,

and runtime targets. Note the directory layout.

1. Find the spine. Identify entry points, core modules, and the main

data/control flow through the system.

1. Read the metadata. Package manifest(s), lockfiles, build config, CI

config, environment/config files, and any docs (README, CONTRIBUTING, ADRs, inline architecture notes).

1. Determine intent. What is the project for — its purpose, intended

users, and apparent maturity (prototype / internal tool / production service / library)?

1. Note existing conventions. Naming, module boundaries, error-handling

patterns, test style — so later recommendations fit the existing culture.

Useful read-only moves (adapt to the stack; never write):

• List the tree, then read the manifest and lockfile to learn the dependency

surface and scripts.

• Read the CI/build config to learn what's enforced today.
• Skim the largest source files and the busiest directories first.
• git log --oneline -20 and git shortlog -sn for recent activity and

ownership signals (read-only; skip if not a git repo).

Output of Phase 1 — a concise "Repo Map": purpose, stack, a short architecture sketch, key directories with one-line descriptions, and anything that surprised you.

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Phase 2 — Audit (evidence-based, severity-rated)

Audit each dimension below. For every finding, record:

• (a) What you found
• (b) Where — file:line
• (c) Why it matters — a concrete consequence, not a vague principle
• (d) Severity — Critical / High / Medium / Low

Severity guide:

• Critical — security hole, data loss, or correctness bug that can bite in

production now.

• High — likely to cause incidents, blocks safe change, or significant

security/perf risk.

• Medium — real problem, bounded blast radius; worth fixing deliberately.
• Low — polish, hygiene, minor inconsistency.

Dimensions

• Architecture & design — module boundaries, coupling/cohesion, circular

dependencies, leaky abstractions, god objects/files, layering violations, scalability bottlenecks.

• Code quality — duplication, dead code, complexity hotspots (longest /

most-branched functions), inconsistent patterns, error-handling gaps (swallowed exceptions, missing edge cases), type-safety holes.

• Security — hardcoded secrets or credentials, injection risks, unsafe

deserialization, missing input validation, auth weaknesses, outdated dependencies with known CVEs, overly permissive configs.

• Testing — coverage gaps (especially around core business logic), test

quality (do tests assert behavior or just execution?), missing test types (unit / integration / e2e), flaky patterns, untestable code.

• Performance — N+1 queries, unnecessary allocations or copies, blocking

calls in async paths, missing caching/indexing, unbounded growth (memory, files, queues).

• Dependencies — outdated, unmaintained, duplicated, or unnecessarily heavy

packages; license risks; lockfile hygiene.

• DevEx & operations — build/setup friction, CI/CD gaps, missing

linting/formatting enforcement, logging/observability quality, error reporting, deployment story.

• Documentation — README accuracy, onboarding path, undocumented critical

behavior, stale docs that contradict the code.

Rules for this phase

• Keep it high-confidence. When you assert a CVE, a swallowed exception, or an

N+1, you should be able to point at the exact line.

• Also list what the repo does well. Strengths decide what to preserve

during the improvement phase — they are not filler.

• Surface the worst problems first and do not bury them.

Output of Phase 2 — an "Audit Report": findings grouped by dimension, sorted by severity within each group, plus a Strengths section. For any dimension that is healthy, one sentence and move on.

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Phase 3 — Improvement Strategy

Synthesize the audit into a strategy — not a list, a thesis.

1. Find the 3–5 themes that explain most of the findings (e.g., "no enforced

boundaries between layers," "error handling is ad hoc," "tests assert execution, not behavior").

1. For each theme, propose a target state and the principle behind it.
2. State explicit trade-offs — what you recommend NOT fixing, and why

(effort vs. payoff, risk, project maturity). A good audit says no to things.

1. Define "done" as measurable signals — e.g., "CI fails on lint errors,"

"core-module test coverage ≥ 80%," "zero Critical findings remain."

Output of Phase 3 — an "Improvement Strategy" with themes, target states, trade-offs, and the definition of done.

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Phase 4 — Detailed Task Plan

Convert the strategy into an execution plan.

Each task includes:

• Title and a one-paragraph description
• Files / areas affected
• Acceptance criteria (how we verify it's done)
• Effort — S (.md if a docs/` directory exists,

otherwise AUDIT.md at the repo root. Use the current date.

• If a prior audit file with the same name exists, do not overwrite it blindly —

pick a suffixed name (e.g. -v2) and mention it.

• In chat, post only the Executive Summary plus the quick-wins list, and link

to the file for the rest. Don't paste the entire document into the conversation — the file is the deliverable.

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After the report (the "improve" step — opt-in)

The audit phase is complete and you have written nothing but the report. Now offer to act, and wait for the user to choose before touching code:

> The audit is in ``. Want me to start on Milestone 0 (safety net), knock > out the quick wins, or stop here?

When the user opts in:

• Start with Milestone 0 (tests/CI gates) before any refactor, so later

changes are verifiable — unless the user picks a specific task.

• Do one milestone (or one batch of quick wins) at a time, then check back.
• Re-read each target file immediately before editing; the audit may be stale by

the time you act.

• For production bugs, write a failing test that reproduces the bug before

writing the fix.

• Keep changes small and reviewable; don't bundle unrelated fixes into one

change.

If the user only wanted the audit, stop cleanly after delivering the document.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: ohong
• Source: ohong/agent-skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.