--- title: "Refactoring an inherited codebase" url: https://daily.dev/posts/refactoring-an-inherited-codebase-qwmzic8z0 source_url: https://chenhuijing.com/blog/refactoring-an-inherited-codebase/ type: article source: "Chen Hui Jing" published: 2025-11-30T12:32:07.958Z updated: 2025-11-30T12:34:39.287Z tags: ["frontend", "flask", "technical-debt"] reading_time: 10 upvotes: 0 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Refactoring an inherited codebase **[Chen Hui Jing](https://daily.dev/sources/chenhuijing)** · 10 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A frontend developer shares their experience refactoring a startup's Flask-based web application over 5 months. The project involved assessing a messy codebase with 76 average requests per page, extracting inline JavaScript and styles, rewriting templates from scratch, and reducing page weight from 6MB to 311KB. The author emphasizes the importance of proper architecture, documentation, and the challenges of paying off technical debt in fast-moving startup environments. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: --- Tags: [#frontend](https://daily.dev/tags/frontend), [#flask](https://daily.dev/tags/flask), [#technical-debt](https://daily.dev/tags/technical-debt) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/refactoring-an-inherited-codebase-qwmzic8z0)