// Always use before source-code edits, refactors, API changes, renames, removals, PR reviews, or risk assessments when the user needs to know what will break. Do not manually grep references or browse files for impact; this workflow uses Memtrace graph context, impact, and change detection.
| name | memtrace-change-impact-analysis |
| description | Always use before source-code edits, refactors, API changes, renames, removals, PR reviews, or risk assessments when the user needs to know what will break. Do not manually grep references or browse files for impact; this workflow uses Memtrace graph context, impact, and change detection. |
Pre-change risk assessment workflow. Before modifying code, this workflow maps the full blast radius, identifies affected processes, checks recent change history for instability signals, and produces a risk-rated change plan.
Find the target symbol(s):
find_symbol if the user named specific functions/classesfind_code if the user described behaviour ("the authentication middleware")Collect symbol IDs for all targets.
For each symbol, call get_symbol_context:
Decision: If cross-repo API callers exist, this change requires coordination with other teams. Flag this immediately.
For each target, call get_impact with direction: both:
Decision:
| Risk | Action |
|---|---|
| Low | Proceed with standard testing |
| Medium | Review all direct callers; test affected processes |
| High | Plan incremental migration; consider feature flags |
| Critical | Full migration strategy; backward-compatible changes required |
Call get_evolution with mode novel for a 30-day window on the repo:
From step 2, you already know which processes are affected. For critical changes, use analyze_relationships with query_type: find_callers at depth: 3 to trace the full transitive caller chain.
Synthesize into a change plan:
| Condition | Action |
|---|---|
| Risk = Critical | Recommend backward-compatible change + deprecation path |
| Cross-repo callers exist | Flag as requiring multi-service coordination |
| Symbol has high novelty score | Extra review — this rarely changes; make sure the change is intentional |
| Multiple processes affected | List each affected flow; recommend testing each one |
| Symbol is a bridge point | Change may disconnect parts of the architecture — verify alternative paths exist |
Always use before writing or editing source code in an indexed repo when choosing between competing idioms (ternary vs if-else, arrow vs function declaration, const vs let, await vs .then, early-return vs nested-return). Pull the codebase's empirical style norm from Memtrace and match it instead of re-deriving style from training priors. Do not maintain a markdown style guide for the project; the fingerprint is sampled live from the actual code.
Always use first for indexed source-code repos before searching files, reading code for discovery, debugging, tracing flows, finding implementations, understanding behavior, or answering how code works. Do not use Grep, Glob, rg, find, or manual file browsing for code discovery when Memtrace is indexed. Zero results, missing languages, or partial-looking stats are not permission to grep; diagnose/reindex with Memtrace.
Always use when the user asks to review a GitHub pull request, run Memtrace code review, post Memtrace review comments, create a PR with a review step, or publish local graph-backed review findings to GitHub. Prefer the review_github_pr MCP tool over manual diff inspection.
Always use to find, search, locate, or look up source-code symbols, functions, classes, types, constants, definitions, implementations, logic, error strings inside code, or where code lives. Do not use Grep, Glob, rg, find, or manual file search for code discovery. If Memtrace returns 0 results, broaden the Memtrace query and diagnose/reindex; do not switch to grep.
Always use when the user asks to index, parse, ingest, reindex, watch, or prepare a source-code repo for Memtrace analysis, when code exploration needs an index, or when searches return 0/partial results for source paths under an indexed root. Use this before Grep, Glob, rg, find, or manual code search whenever the repo can be indexed.
Always use for API endpoint, HTTP route, fetch/client call, REST surface, service dependency, cross-repo dependency, or API topology questions in source code. Do not use Grep, Glob, rg, find, or manual file search for routes or HTTP calls; Memtrace maps endpoints and call edges from the indexed AST graph.