gitnexus-impact-analysis

Use when the user wants to know what will break if they change something, or needs safety analysis before editing code. Examples: "Is it safe to change X?", "What depends on this?", "What will break?"

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Impact Analysis with GitNexus

When to Use

"Is it safe to change this function?"
"What will break if I modify X?"
"Show me the blast radius"
"Who uses this code?"
Before making non-trivial code changes
Before committing — to understand what your changes affect

Workflow

1. impact({target: "X", direction: "upstream"}) or `node .gitnexus/run.cjs impact "X" --direction upstream --repo .`
2. READ gitnexus://repo/{name}/processes                   → Check affected execution flows
3. detect_changes({scope: "all"}) or `node .gitnexus/run.cjs detect-changes --scope all --repo .`
4. Assess risk and report to user

If "Index is stale" → run node .gitnexus/run.cjs analyze in terminal. If .gitnexus/run.cjs is missing, replace node .gitnexus/run.cjs with npx gitnexus in the fallback commands.

Checklist

- [ ] impact({target, direction: "upstream"}) or CLI fallback to find dependents
- [ ] Review d=1 items first (these WILL BREAK)
- [ ] Check high-confidence (>0.8) dependencies
- [ ] READ processes to check affected execution flows
- [ ] detect_changes({scope: "all"}) or CLI fallback for pre-commit check
- [ ] Assess risk level and report to user

Understanding Output

Depth	Risk Level	Meaning
d=1	WILL BREAK	Direct callers/importers
d=2	LIKELY AFFECTED	Indirect dependencies
d=3	MAY NEED TESTING	Transitive effects

Risk Assessment

Affected	Risk
<5 symbols, few processes	LOW
5-15 symbols, 2-5 processes	MEDIUM
>15 symbols or many processes	HIGH
Critical path (auth, payments)	CRITICAL
Zero callers found	UNKNOWN

UNKNOWN is not a low rung on this scale — it means the walk could not answer. An empty caller set is equally consistent with "genuinely unused" and "the callers are not resolvable by the index" (plain-object property access, dynamic dispatch, cross-language calls), so few-callers ⇒ LOW does not apply. The result carries a riskNote saying so. Confirm with a text search before treating the symbol as safe to change or delete.

Tools

impact — the primary tool for symbol blast radius. If MCP is unavailable, use node .gitnexus/run.cjs impact <symbol> --direction upstream --repo . instead:

impact({
  target: "validateUser",
  direction: "upstream",
  minConfidence: 0.8,
  maxDepth: 3
})

→ d=1 (WILL BREAK):
  - loginHandler (src/auth/login.ts:42) [CALLS, 100%]
  - apiMiddleware (src/api/middleware.ts:15) [CALLS, 100%]

→ d=2 (LIKELY AFFECTED):
  - authRouter (src/routes/auth.ts:22) [CALLS, 95%]

detect_changes — git-diff based impact analysis. If MCP is unavailable, use node .gitnexus/run.cjs detect-changes --scope all --repo . instead:

detect_changes({scope: "all"})

→ Changed: 5 symbols in 3 files
→ Affected: LoginFlow, TokenRefresh, APIMiddlewarePipeline
→ Risk: MEDIUM

Example: "What breaks if I change validateUser?"

1. impact({target: "validateUser", direction: "upstream"}) or `node .gitnexus/run.cjs impact "validateUser" --direction upstream --repo .`
   → d=1: loginHandler, apiMiddleware (WILL BREAK)
   → d=2: authRouter, sessionManager (LIKELY AFFECTED)

2. READ gitnexus://repo/my-app/processes
   → LoginFlow and TokenRefresh touch validateUser

3. Risk: 2 direct callers, 2 processes = MEDIUM

Repository: abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus
Path: .claude/skills/gitnexus-impact-analysis/SKILL.md
Commit: c6b2416

Last updated: 2 days ago
First committed: 27 days ago

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