Cleaning vs Refactoring

These are not the same thing.

Cleaning

Cleaning means making the repo easier to work in without materially changing behavior.

Examples:

• removing stale docs
• tightening naming
• deleting obvious dead code
• organizing files

Refactoring

Refactoring means changing structure while preserving behavior.

Examples:

• splitting a large component
• moving logic behind cleaner boundaries
• extracting a shared helper

The practical rule

During launch work, ask for cleanup and refactoring in phases that do not interfere with the buyer journey.

Good prompt:

Find 3 cleanup or refactor opportunities that improve maintainability without changing launch-critical behavior. Give me a phased approach.

What success looks like

The repo becomes easier for future agents and developers to work in without introducing new launch risk.