Gitnexus Impact Analysis

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"})  → What depends on this
2. READ gitnexus://repo/{name}/processes                   → Check affected execution flows
3. detect_changes()                               → Map current git changes to affected flows
4. Assess risk and report to user

> If "Index is stale" → run node .gitnexus/run.cjs analyze in terminal.

Checklist

- [ ] impact({target, direction: "upstream"}) 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() 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 | | ------------------------------ | -------- | | 15 symbols or many processes | HIGH | | Critical path (auth, payments) | CRITICAL |

Tools

impact — the primary tool for symbol blast radius:

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:

detect_changes({scope: "staged"})

→ 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"})
   → 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

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: metagit-ai
• Source: metagit-ai/metagit-cli
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://metagit-ai.github.io/metagit-cli/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.