Skip to content
contextlint

classifyImpact

Overview

Section titled “Overview”

Returns the files affected by changing the given file, classified into direct references (one hop) and transitive references (two or more hops). Direct references also carry a reference count.

Why it exists

Section titled “Why it exists”

getImpactSet returns a flat list, so it cannot distinguish “files you must review directly” from “files worth a sanity check”. classifyImpact separates impact into two tiers and attaches the closest direct file (via) on each transitive entry, which makes review prioritization and path visualization easier.

The MCP impact-analysis tool formats the output of this function directly.

Signature

Section titled “Signature”
function classifyImpact(
  graph: ContextGraph,
  filePath: string,
): {
  directlyAffected: { file: string; references: number }[];
  transitivelyAffected: { file: string; via: string }[];
};

Parameters

Section titled “Parameters”
ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
graphContextGraph✓The graph built by buildContextGraph.
filePathstring✓The path of the file whose impact you want to classify.

Return value

Section titled “Return value”

Returns an object.

  • directlyAffected — Files that reference filePath directly. references is the reference count within the same source (the total number of times that file links to filePath). Sorted by file path.
  • transitivelyAffected — Files reached indirectly rather than directly. via is the closest “directly affected file” on the path. Sorted by file path.

Example

Section titled “Example”
import { buildContextGraph, classifyImpact, loadDocuments } from "@contextlint/core";


const documents = loadDocuments(["docs/**/*.md"]);
const graph = buildContextGraph(documents);


const impact = classifyImpact(graph, "docs/architecture.md");


console.log(`Direct impact: ${impact.directlyAffected.length}`);
for (const item of impact.directlyAffected) {
  console.log(`  - ${item.file} (${item.references} refs)`);
}


console.log(`Transitive impact: ${impact.transitivelyAffected.length}`);
for (const item of impact.transitivelyAffected) {
  console.log(`  - ${item.file} (via: ${item.via})`);
}
Section titled “Related functions”