Is the Evolutionary Naming skill free?

Yes. The skill itself is free from kawasima/evolutionary-naming. SkillProof publishes the install command and an independent test verdict at no cost.

What is the Evolutionary Naming SkillProof Score?

9.6/10 — installs cleanly 5/5, triggers reliably 5/5, output vs. baseline 9/10, docs & honesty 5/5.

How do I install Evolutionary Naming?

Copy the install command from this page, run it in your terminal, and restart Claude Code. Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ inside a project.

Can I use Evolutionary Naming with Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex or other AI tools?

The SKILL.md format is native to Claude (Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai). The instructions inside adapt to other assistants: Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, Windsurf rules, Custom GPTs, AGENTS.md for OpenAI Codex, and GEMINI.md for Google Gemini CLI — our conversion guides cover each, and the free converter on the tools page does the wrapping for you.

Evolutionary Naming

Walks bad identifiers through Arlo Belshee's 7-step naming process, one proposed commit at a time.

by kawasima · kawasima/evolutionary-naming

Tested · Works

Install — copy the command Download source ↗

Test report

Verdict: Tested · Works
Score: 9.6/10
Tested: Jul 14, 2026
Environment: Claude Code 2.x (agent harness)
Upstream re-checked: Aug 10, 2026 · b21345b

Fed it a `DataManager.process(self, d)` method: instead of a one-shot rename it produced the full Missing→applesauce→Honest→Honest-and-Complete chain with a distinct commit message per step, then correctly paused before proposing the Phase-2 method split rather than just doing it.

Scored on four weighted criteria — install, triggering, output vs. baseline, docs. How scoring works

Installs cleanly 5/5
Triggers reliably 5/5
Output vs. baseline 9/10
Docs & honesty 5/5

What Evolutionary Naming does

Diagnoses poorly named classes, methods, and variables (-Manager/-Util suffixes, single-letter vars, process/handle verbs, god methods) and proposes renames through 7 progressive steps grouped into 3 phases, pausing for permission before any structural change. Advisory only — it reads code via Read/Grep/Glob and proposes renames plus commit messages; it never edits files or runs git. Triggers on refactor/naming requests, offering an audit mode for broad scans and an improve mode for walking one identifier through the process.

How to install Evolutionary Naming

git clone https://github.com/kawasima/evolutionary-naming
cd evolutionary-naming
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r skills/evolutionary-naming ~/.claude/skills/evolutionary-naming

Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ (per-project). Restart Claude Code after installing.

Commands — how to trigger Evolutionary Naming

/evolutionary-naming Walks bad identifiers through Arlo Belshee's 7-step naming process, one proposed commit at a time.

It also activates on plain-language prompts like these:

This method name process(d) is terrible, help me improve it.
Audit this file for bad variable names like tmp, x, and d.
Help me rename this DataManager class to something meaningful.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Evolutionary Naming skill free?: Yes. The skill itself is free from kawasima/evolutionary-naming. SkillProof publishes the install command and an independent test verdict at no cost.
Does Evolutionary Naming work with Claude Code?: We tested it with Claude Code 2.x (agent harness) on Jul 14, 2026. Verdict: Tested · Works. Fed it a `DataManager.process(self, d)` method: instead of a one-shot rename it produced the full Missing→applesauce→Honest→Honest-and-Complete chain with a distinct commit message per step, then correctly paused before proposing the Phase-2 method split rather than just doing it.
What is the Evolutionary Naming SkillProof Score?: 9.6/10 — installs cleanly 5/5, triggers reliably 5/5, output vs. baseline 9/10, docs & honesty 5/5.
How do I install Evolutionary Naming?: Copy the install command from this page, run it in your terminal, and restart Claude Code. Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ inside a project.
Can I use Evolutionary Naming with Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex or other AI tools?: The SKILL.md format is native to Claude (Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai). The instructions inside adapt to other assistants: Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, Windsurf rules, Custom GPTs, AGENTS.md for OpenAI Codex, and GEMINI.md for Google Gemini CLI — our conversion guides cover each, and the free converter on the tools page does the wrapping for you.