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Syntax

gitnexus impact <target>

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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.

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Arguments

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

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Options

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--direction
string
Analysis direction.Values: upstream (dependants) or downstream (dependencies)Default: upstream
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--repo
string
Target repository name. Omit if only one repository is indexed.
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--depth
number
Maximum relationship depth to analyze.Default: 3
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--include-tests
boolean
Include test files in results.Default: false

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Usage Examples

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Basic upstream analysis

gitnexus impact validateUser

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Downstream dependencies

gitnexus impact AuthService --direction downstream

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Include test files

gitnexus impact validateUser --include-tests

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Limit depth

gitnexus impact AuthService --depth 2

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Specific repository

gitnexus impact validateUser --repo backend-api

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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"
}

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Direction Types

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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

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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

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Confidence Scores

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

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Risk Levels

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

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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

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Test Files

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

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Multi-Repo Support

If you have multiple repositories indexed, specify which one: 
gitnexus impact AuthService --repo backend-api

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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

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