devlearn-before-you-ship

To plan a large code refactor, generate a plain-English pre-coding plan defining goals, change scope, non-goals, and file estimates. This clarifies risks and verification steps before any edits happen.

A pre-coding plan for multi-file changes is a structured scope guard that defines goals, non-goals, risk assessments, and verification steps to prevent silent, messy code edits across architecture shifts.

You need a refactor risk assessment when more than five files will change, when architecture or dependencies shift, or when executing complex change management across multi-file updates.

Use execution gating with confirmation to stop an agent workflow from editing files. This pauses the process and requires explicit user confirmation to proceed, adjust, or just ship.

Yes, architecture planning can adjust emphasis based on developer persona. It frames decisions with simple terms for feel-first developers or focuses on risks, tradeoffs, and rollback for seasoned developers.

After finalizing the pre-coding plan, you should redirect to related release lifecycle skills to ensure release readiness, then explicitly confirm to proceed with the actual code edits.