--- title: "Rider Hands AI Agents The Keys To Its Refactoring Engine For Safer, Faster, And Cheaper Results" url: https://daily.dev/posts/rider-hands-ai-agents-the-keys-to-its-refactoring-engine-for-safer-faster-and-cheaper-results-tsvmsygq1 source_url: https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2026/08/19/rider-refactoring-code-skill type: article source: "JetBrains .NET Blog" published: 2026-08-19T17:20:18.706Z updated: 2026-08-19T19:05:40.226Z tags: ["ai-agents", "c#"] reading_time: 7 upvotes: 2 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. # Rider Hands AI Agents The Keys To Its Refactoring Engine For Safer, Faster, And Cheaper Results **[JetBrains .NET Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/jetbrains-dotnet)** · 7 min read · 2 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary JetBrains introduces a bundled 'refactoring-code' skill in Rider 2026.2.1 that lets AI coding agents call Rider's own C# refactoring engine directly instead of approximating refactors with sed, grep, and repeated dotnet build cycles. In a benchmark of fifteen C# refactoring tasks using gpt-5.5 through Codex CLI, giving the agent access to the skill cut median task time by 83%, cost per solved task by 64%, and tool calls by 63%. A detailed extract-base-class example shows the agent going from 24 tool calls and 336.7 seconds (with 11 build-and-fix cycles) down to 3 calls and 19.8 seconds when it can invoke Rider's structural refactoring directly. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is the refactoring-code skill in JetBrains Rider 2026.2.1? It is a bundled agent skill in Rider 2026.2.1 that lets AI coding agents invoke Rider's built-in C# refactoring engine (powered by ReSharper) directly, instead of approximating refactors with text edits and repeated dotnet build cycles. It activates automatically when an agent is asked to refactor C# code, covering operations like rename, extract method, extract interface, extract base class, change API signature, move type to namespace, reorganize namespaces, and safe delete. _Developers wiring AI agents into their IDE workflows can track skill releases like this one on daily.dev._ ### How much faster is an AI coding agent at C# refactoring when it can call Rider's refactoring engine directly instead of using sed and dotnet build? Across fifteen C# refactoring tasks run with gpt-5.5 through Codex CLI, giving the agent access to Rider's refactoring-code skill cut median task time by 83% (from 157.9 to 26.6 seconds), reduced cost per solved task by 64% (from USD 0.52 to USD 0.19), and cut tool calls by 63% (from 2,513 to 926 total across the evaluation), with dotnet build calls dropping from 163 to 3. _Teams evaluating whether IDE-integrated agent skills beat raw shell access follow benchmarks like this on daily.dev._ ### Why does an AI agent keep running dotnet build over and over when refactoring C# code without IDE tooling? An agent without structural refactoring tools uses dotnet build as a substitute for a resolved syntax tree: since it cannot know overload resolution, partial classes, explicit interface implementations, or documentation references from a regular expression alone, it guesses the edit in text via sed and lets the compiler's error output tell it what broke, repeating the guess-and-build cycle until the build succeeds. _Anyone debugging why an agent thrashes on refactors can compare IDE-skill approaches surfaced on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Rider 2026.2: IDE Intelligence for AI Agents, Faster Performance, and Spectacular Game Dev Updates](https://daily.dev/posts/rider-2026-2-ide-intelligence-for-ai-agents-faster-performance-and-spectacular-game-dev-updates-f91cdm3hp) · JetBrains .NET Blog · 1 upvotes · 1 comments - [Rider 2026.2 Release Candidate Is Out\!](https://daily.dev/posts/rider-2026-2-release-candidate-is-out--uvvylqagt) · JetBrains .NET Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#c#](https://daily.dev/tags/c#) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/rider-hands-ai-agents-the-keys-to-its-refactoring-engine-for-safer-faster-and-cheaper-results-tsvmsygq1)