safe-rename

Safe Rename Skill

Guides a systematic, tool-augmented workflow for renaming exported symbols across a codebase without silently breaking consumers, tests, or downstream builds.

When to Use

• Renaming an exported function, class, interface, type alias, constant, or enum across the codebase.
• Renaming a file that is imported by other modules (requires updating all import paths).
• Any rename where the old symbol name appears in more than one file.

Do NOT use for:

• Local-only renames (a variable scoped to a single function body) — use your editor's rename refactoring directly.
• Renaming a symbol that has zero consumers — just edit the definition.

Required Tools

Workflow

Step 1 — Identify the target

1. Determine the file that exports the symbol and the symbol name to rename.
2. If renaming a file itself, note the old path and the new path.

Step 2 — Discover consumers

1. Run repo_map with action importers and file set to the target file path. This returns every file that imports from the target, with line numbers and import metadata.
2. If the rename is high-risk (the symbol is widely used or part of a core utility), also run repo_map with action blast_radius to understand transitive dependents.

Step 3 — Understand the API surface

1. Run symbols on the target file (with exported_only: true) to see every exported symbol. This helps confirm the exact name, signature, and whether the symbol is re-exported.
2. Run batch_symbols on the consumer files identified in Step 2 to understand how they import and use the symbol.

Step 4 — Assess impact

1. Read each consumer file identified in Step 2 to understand usage patterns:
   • Direct named imports: import { OldName } from './target'
   • Namespace imports: import * as ns from './target' then ns.OldName
   • Default imports or re-exports
   • Dynamic access: obj['OldName'] (see Limitations)
2. Count the total number of files and occurrences to gauge rename scope.

Step 5 — Execute the rename

1. Rename the definition in the source file first using edit.
2. Update each consumer file one at a time using apply_patch:
   • Use suggest_patch to preview the rename changes for the consumer file, then apply the patch with apply_patch.
   • Replace the old symbol name with the new name in import statements.
   • Replace the old symbol name with the new name in usage sites within that file.
   • Do NOT batch all edits into a single call — apply one file at a time so each change is independently verifiable.
3. If renaming a file (not just a symbol), update all import paths in consumer files to reflect the new file path.
4. If the symbol is re-exported from an index/barrel file, update the re-export as well.

Step 6 — Dry-run verification (MANDATORY)

Before considering the rename complete:

1. Use suggest_patch to preview any remaining rename changes before applying with apply_patch, ensuring the patch set is correct.
2. Run build_check with mode: "typecheck" and scope: "changed".
   • If this fails, review the output for remaining references to the old name or type mismatches introduced by the rename.
   • Fix any issues found and re-run the typecheck.
3. Run build_check with mode: "both" if the project uses a build step (compilation + typecheck).

Step 7 — Post-rename verification

1. Run test_runner with scope: "impact" or scope: "graph" on the changed files to verify no tests break.
2. Run search for the old symbol name across the entire codebase to confirm zero remaining references (excluding comments, changelogs, and docs/releases/ history fragments).
3. If any references remain, determine whether they are:
   • Stale references that need updating — fix them.
   • Intentional (e.g., migration aliases, backward-compat shims) — document why they remain.
   • Documentation/history — leave as-is.

Circular dependency warning: type extraction from sibling files

When consolidating types from sibling files (e.g., extracting a shared type from evidence.ts and runner.ts into a new types.ts in the same directory), verify import direction before creating the shared module. If the new module imports anything from either sibling, you create a circular dependency that silently breaks the module graph.

Example of the trap:

// types.ts — imports from a sibling
import { SomeClass } from './runner'; // ← runner.ts will import from types.ts
export interface MyType { handler: SomeClass }; // circular!

Verification steps:

1. Before creating the shared module, use repo_map (action: dependencies) on each sibling file to understand what it imports.
2. After extraction, run repo_map (action: importers) on the new shared module to verify it has no import edges pointing back to the siblings.
3. Run build_check (mode: typecheck) to confirm no circular dependency errors.
4. If a circular dependency is detected, move the shared type to a module that neither sibling imports from (e.g., a new _types.ts that has no imports from the directory).

Why this matters: During PR #1702, consolidating types from sibling files in src/turbo/lean/ created a circular dependency between evidence.ts, runner.ts, and the extracted types module. The typecheck caught it, but the fix required restructuring the extraction.

Limitations

This workflow has the following known gaps:

No alias resolution

repo_map importers and search find imports by file path, but they do not resolve renamed imports:

import { X as Y } from './target'; // Y is an alias for X

If you rename X to Z, the search will not find the Y alias. You must manually check for aliased imports by searching for { X as patterns.

No type-awareness (structural typing)

This workflow is text-based, not AST-based. In TypeScript, structural typing means a variable typed as { name: string } satisfies any interface with that shape, regardless of the interface name. Renaming the interface name does not require updating these structural usages, but the workflow may flag them as "missed references" in Step 7.

Dynamic references

References via string literals, reflection, or computed property access are invisible to static search:

obj['oldName']           // string-based property access
Reflect.get(target, 'oldName') // reflection

If the renamed symbol is accessed dynamically anywhere, those references will not be found by search or repo_map. Use grep for the string form of the old name to catch these cases.

Re-exports and barrel files

If a symbol is re-exported through an index file (export { X } from './X'), the re-export line and all downstream consumers of the re-export must also be updated. The repo_map blast_radius action helps here, but you must manually verify re-export chains.

Non-code references

The old symbol name may appear in:

• Configuration files (JSON, YAML, TOML)
• CLI argument parsers
• Stringified identifiers in database records
• External API contracts or documentation

These are outside the scope of this workflow but should be considered for high-impact renames.

Checklist

Before marking a rename complete, verify every item:

• Definition renamed in source file
• All import statements updated across consumers
• All usage sites updated across consumers
• Re-exports updated (if applicable)
• Import paths updated (if renaming a file)
• build_check typecheck passes with no errors
• Tests pass for all affected files
• search for old name returns zero stale code references
• Limitations reviewed and exceptions documented (if any)