Refactoring Zed AI Code for Production

Zed AI's refactoring assistance works well for local changes but may not account for how a change ripples through the rest of the codebase. Renaming a function or changing a signature may be done correctly in one file but leave call sites in other files stale

Use Zed AI for local refactoring tasks and rely on the compiler or type system to surface broken call sites. For larger refactors, use Zed AI to generate the new version of a module, then manually migrate call sites using the compiler errors as a guide

Not all Zed AI code needs refactoring. If it works, is secure, and you don't need to modify it, leave it alone. Refactor when: you need to add features and the current structure makes it difficult, bugs keep appearing in the same area of code, or onboarding new developers takes too long because the code is hard to understand.

The golden rule of refactoring: behavior stays the same, structure changes. Before refactoring any code, make sure you have tests covering the current behavior (or add them first). Refactor in small steps — change one thing at a time and verify the app still works. Use version control (git) to commit after each successful change so you can revert if something breaks.

A well-organized project has a predictable structure where anyone can find what they're looking for. Group files by feature (not by type), keep related code together, and use clear naming. Every file should have a single clear purpose. If you can't describe what a file does in one sentence, it's probably doing too much and should be split.