Use the Mikado Method to do safe changes in a complex codebase
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Use the Mikado Method to do safe changes in a complex codebase
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Re: Use the Mikado Method to do safe changes in a complex codebase
#2In 2026, we call this "plan mode"
Re: Use the Mikado Method to do safe changes in a complex codebase
#3I’ve been using a form of the Mikado Method based on a specific ordering of git commits (by message prefix) along with some pre commit hook scripts, governed by a document: https://docs.eblu.me/how-to/agent-change-process
I have this configured to feed in to an agent for large changes. It’s been working pretty well, still not perfect though… the tricky part is that it is very tempting (and maybe even sometimes correct) to not fully reset between mikado “iterations”, but then you wind up with a messy state transfer. The advantage so far has been that it’s easy to make progress while ditching a session context “poisoned” by some failure.
Re: Use the Mikado Method to do safe changes in a complex codebase
#4In 2026, we call this "plan mode"
It goes a lot further than plan mode though, in fact I would say the key difference of mikado refactors from waterfall refactors is that you don’t do all the planning up front with mikado. If anything you try to do as little planning as possible.
Re: Use the Mikado Method to do safe changes in a complex codebase
#5Inherited? I wrote the thing! Customer have no money for large refactoring.
Re: Use the Mikado Method to do safe changes in a complex codebase
#6> The project doesn’t compile anymore.
Using a programming language that has a compiler, lucky.
Re: Use the Mikado Method to do safe changes in a complex codebase
#71. take a well known method for problem solving basically any programmer/human knows
2. slap a cool word from the land of the rising sun
3.???
4. profit!
This article is painfully pretentious and stealth marketing for a book
Re: Use the Mikado Method to do safe changes in a complex codebase
#8Write tests. Most likely those 300k lines of code contain a TESST folder with 4 unit tests written by an intern who retired to become a bonsai farmer in the 1990s, and none of them pass anymore. Things become much less stressful if you have something basic telling you you're still good.
Re: Use the Mikado Method to do safe changes in a complex codebase
#9So you do things one step at a time and timebox as you go? This method probably doesn't need its own name. In fact I think that's just what timeboxing is.
Re: Use the Mikado Method to do safe changes in a complex codebase
#101. take a well known method for problem solving basically any programmer/human knows 2. slap a cool word from the land of the rising sun 3.??? 4. profit! This article is painfully pretentious and stealth marketing for a book
Stealth marketing by someone completely unrelated to the book, 11 years after the book is released. Seems unlikely.