When an AI refactor renames a route and your forms stop working

You ask your AI tool to "clean up the API" or "make the naming consistent". It does a nice job. Then a user clicks Sign up and the button just spins. No error, no account, no email.

What happens

During a refactor the AI renames something: /api/signup becomes /api/auth/register, a form field email becomes userEmail, or a function createCheckout becomes createCheckoutSession. It updates most of the places that use it, but not all. One form still posts to the old route and gets a 404, or the backend rejects the old field name with a 400.

The frontend usually doesn't show it. The request fails, the error is caught and ignored, and the spinner keeps spinning. In preview you might not notice, because you were testing a different page.

A quick check after any AI refactor

1. Search the whole project for the old names. Look at the diff, note anything renamed, and search for the old route path, field name and function name. Any hit outside the diff is a likely bug.
2. Make errors visible. Every form submit should show a message when the request fails, not just log it. Ask your AI tool: "Make sure every form shows an error to the user if the request fails."
3. Open the browser's Network tab and click through the real flow: sign up, log in, start a checkout. Any red 404 or 400 tells you exactly which call still uses the old name.
4. Do this on the live site after deploy, not only in preview.

If something fails, paste the failing request URL and response into your AI tool and ask it to update that one call to match the new name.

Catch it without remembering to

Refactors happen all the time, and you won't click through every flow after each one. FlowPatrol runs your sign-up, login and checkout against your live app on a schedule and emails you as soon as one breaks, with a ready-to-paste fix prompt. Try a free scan on flowpatrol.app.