Refactor without changing behaviour

Small, safe, reviewable steps instead of a rewrite.

ChatGPTClaude

Use it when: Cleaning up code you cannot afford to break.

Fill in the blanks

LanguageYour Code

Your prompt

Refactor the [Language] code below.

Hard rule: behaviour must not change. No new dependencies unless you justify them.

Return:
1. What is wrong with the current structure, in three bullets.
2. The refactor as a sequence of small steps, each one safe to ship on its own.
3. The final code.
4. What a reviewer should check to be sure nothing changed.

---CODE---
[Your Code]
---END CODE---

Keep this prompt

Save it to your own vault with your usual values already filled in, and reach it from any tab with the Chrome extension.

Open my vault Get the extension Learn to write your own

More coding prompts

CodingChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
Build and explain a regex
A pattern you can actually read, with test cases.
Fill it in and copy
CodingChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
Debug an error properly
Forces the model to rank causes by likelihood before proposing a fix.
Fill it in and copy
CodingChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
Document an API endpoint
Reference docs a stranger could implement against.
Fill it in and copy
CodingChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
Explain this code line by line
A walkthrough pitched at your level, plus the parts most likely to bite you.
Fill it in and copy

Fill in the blanks

Your prompt

Keep this prompt

More coding prompts

Build and explain a regex

Debug an error properly

Document an API endpoint

Explain this code line by line