Technology Radar
Mapping code smells to refactoring techniques means instructing an agent to handle specific issues with a defined approach. The first layer typically points the agent to a generic reference, such as Refactoring, for common cases. For more specialized issues, teams can map unique smells to specific techniques using Agent Skills, slash commands or AGENTS.md. When integrated with linting tools, this creates deterministic feedback by triggering the appropriate refactoring approach whenever a smell is detected.
This is particularly effective for legacy stacks like .NET Framework 2.0 or Java 8, where generic training data often falls short. It’s also useful for teams with distinctive engineering standards. Without these targeted instructions, an agent will tend to default to generic patterns rather than follow specific requirements.
