gitnexus impact

Blast radius analysis for code changes

Syntax

gitnexus impact <target>

Description

Blast radius analysis: what breaks if you change a symbol. This is a direct CLI wrapper for the impact MCP tool.

Analyzes the dependency graph to find:

• Upstream (dependants) — What calls this symbol and would break if it changes
• Downstream (dependencies) — What this symbol calls and might need updating

Results are grouped by depth (1, 2, 3 hops) with confidence scores.

Arguments

target · string · required

Symbol name to analyze (e.g., “validateUser”, “AuthService”).

Options

--direction · string

Analysis direction.

Values: upstream (dependants) or downstream (dependencies)

Default: upstream

--repo · string

Target repository name. Omit if only one repository is indexed.

--depth · number

Maximum relationship depth to analyze.

Default: 3

--include-tests · boolean

Include test files in results.

Default: false

Usage Examples

Basic upstream analysis

gitnexus impact validateUser

Downstream dependencies

gitnexus impact AuthService --direction downstream

Include test files

gitnexus impact validateUser --include-tests

Limit depth

gitnexus impact AuthService --depth 2

Specific repository

gitnexus impact validateUser --repo backend-api

Output Format

Results are returned as JSON on stderr:

{
  "target": {
    "name": "validateUser",
    "type": "Function",
    "file": "src/auth/validator.ts",
    "line": 42
  },
  "direction": "upstream",
  "impact": {
    "depth_1": [
      {
        "name": "login",
        "file": "src/auth/login.ts",
        "line": 18,
        "type": "Function",
        "confidence": "high"
      }
    ],
    "depth_2": [
      {
        "name": "handleAuth",
        "file": "src/api/auth.ts",
        "line": 32,
        "type": "Function",
        "confidence": "medium"
      }
    ],
    "depth_3": []
  },
  "total_affected": 2,
  "risk_level": "medium"
}

Direction Types

Upstream (dependants)

What calls this symbol — use this before making breaking changes:

gitnexus impact validateUser --direction upstream

Example:

validateUser (target)
  ↑ called by login
    ↑ called by handleAuth
      ↑ called by authMiddleware

Downstream (dependencies)

What this symbol calls — use this to understand what might need updating:

gitnexus impact AuthService --direction downstream

Example:

AuthService (target)
  ↓ calls validateUser
    ↓ calls hashPassword
      ↓ calls crypto.pbkdf2

Confidence Scores

• high — Direct call relationship
• medium — Indirect call (depth 2)
• low — Distant relationship (depth 3+)

Risk Levels

• low — 1-5 affected symbols
• medium — 6-20 affected symbols
• high — 21+ affected symbols

When to Use

Use gitnexus impact before:

• Refactoring — Understand blast radius
• Breaking changes — Find all affected callers
• Deleting code — Check if anything depends on it
• API changes — See downstream impact

Test Files

By default, test files are excluded from impact analysis to reduce noise. Include them with --include-tests:

gitnexus impact validateUser --include-tests

Multi-Repo Support

If you have multiple repositories indexed, specify which one:

gitnexus impact AuthService --repo backend-api

Output Destination

All output goes to stderr instead of stdout because KuzuDB’s native module captures stdout at the OS level.

To redirect to a file:

gitnexus impact validateUser 2> impact.json

Related Commands

• gitnexus query — Search for execution flows
• gitnexus context — 360-degree symbol view
• gitnexus cypher — Raw graph queries