Incidental Complexity Finder

incidental-complexity-finder

λcode. select(single_unit) | incidental(burden) ∧ ¬essential(burden) → target ∨ ∅

Scope

This skill chooses exactly one executable unit (a (ns, var, arity)) to target for a behaviour-preserving simplification, or reports that no unit qualifies. It is function/executable-unit-level only — not architectural (cycles, god-modules, missing abstractions are a different selector).

Why gap, not raw complexity

gordian complexity ranks by cyclomatic complexity (cc), which surfaces essential complexity — flat dispatch/registration tables with high cc are irreducible decision logic, false positives for simplification. The signal for incidental complexity is comprehension burden the branching does not explain: high gordian local burden (lcc-total) against low/moderate cc.

The discriminator is gap = lcc-total / max(cc, 1). A high gap means the unit carries far more comprehension burden than its decision count justifies — braiding, state threading, abstraction oscillation, helper-chasing, working-set overload. That burden is incidental and refactorable. High cc alone is not a target (it is essential decision logic); this is the core false-positive guard.

Procedure

1. Run both lenses in machine form

bb gordian local --sort total --json   > /tmp/icf-local.json
bb gordian complexity --json           > /tmp/icf-cc.json

Both emit a units array; each unit carries ns/var/arity. local units carry lcc-total plus per-dimension burdens (flow-burden, state-burden, shape-burden, abstraction-burden, dependency-burden, working-set) and a findings array; complexity units carry cc. Both also carry line (the unit's start line), used to make the join key unique (see step 3). The --sort total on the local call is selector-only ranking display — it has no effect on the (ns, var, arity, line)-keyed join below.

2. Join and compute gap — fixed verbatim recipe

Run this exactly as written (it is a canonical recipe, not ad-hoc code, so selection is reproducible):

jq -n --slurpfile loc /tmp/icf-local.json --slurpfile cc /tmp/icf-cc.json '
  ($cc[0].units
   | map({key: (.ns + "/" + .var + "/" + (.arity|tostring) + "@" + (.line|tostring)), value: .cc})
   | from_entries) as $ccmap                                    # key includes line: unique even for null-arity defmethods
  | $loc[0].units
  | map(. + {gap_key: (.ns + "/" + .var + "/" + (.arity|tostring) + "@" + (.line|tostring))})
  | map(select($ccmap[.gap_key] != null))                       # inner join on the local side: drop unmatched local rows
  | map(. + {cc: $ccmap[.gap_key],
             gap: (.["lcc-total"] / ([$ccmap[.gap_key], 1] | max))})
  | map(select(.["lcc-total"] >= 5.0 and .gap >= 2.0))          # qualification filter
  | sort_by(-.gap)
  | .[0:5]
  | map({ns, var, arity,
         file, line, end_line: .["end-line"],
         lcc_total: .["lcc-total"],
         flow_burden: .["flow-burden"], state_burden: .["state-burden"],
         shape_burden: .["shape-burden"], abstraction_burden: .["abstraction-burden"],
         dependency_burden: .["dependency-burden"], working_set: .["working-set"],
         findings,
         cc, gap})
'

This prints the top 5 qualifying units by gap, each with its evidence.

3. Unmatched-row rule (A1 — embedded in the recipe)

The join is an inner join keyed on the local side, keyed on (ns, var, arity, line): only units present in both lenses are candidates.

Why line is part of the key (A1 determinism). (ns, var, arity) alone is not unique: every defmethod-style unit emits arity: null, so all the defmethod bodies for one multimethod (e.g. the 51 psi.agent-session.dispatch-effects/execute-effect! defmethods) collapse onto a single key …/execute-effect!/null on both lenses. Building $ccmap with from_entries over a non-unique key is last-wins, so every null-arity unit would inherit the cc of whichever defmethod jq emitted last — a value that is non-deterministic w.r.t. emit order, breaking the "fixed recipe … reproducible" guarantee. Adding @line makes the key unique (each defmethod has a distinct start line), so from_entries is lossless and every unit gets its own cc regardless of emit order. The join is therefore total and deterministic over the (ns, var, arity, line) key space.

• A local unit with no matching cc row is dropped — excluded from candidates. It is never defaulted to cc = 1; defaulting would inflate gap toward false qualification, so it is explicitly forbidden (the select($ccmap[.gap_key] != null) line enforces this).
• complexity units with no matching local row carry no lcc-total and are irrelevant — they never enter the candidate set.
• max(cc, 1) guards only the matched zero-cc case (a matched unit whose cc is reported as 0), not the missing-row case.

4. Qualification filter (thresholds — explicit and tunable)

A unit qualifies iff:

lcc-total ≥ 5.0   and   gap ≥ 2.0

Rank qualifying units by gap (descending). If no unit qualifies, there is no target — emit the no-target report (this drives the workflow's early stop).

Thresholds lcc-total ≥ 5.0, gap ≥ 2.0, and the top-5 guard depth (step 5) are stated here explicitly and are tunable.

5. Judgment guard — essential vs. incidental (top 5)

Read the top 5 qualifying units by gap (the recipe output above). For each, read the unit's source and its findings, and confirm the burden is incidental:

• braiding / interleaving of unrelated concerns,
• state threading (a value laboriously carried/reshaped through the body),
• abstraction oscillation (repeated level-shifting up/down),
• helper-chasing (logic scattered across one-shot helpers),
• working-set overload (many live bindings at once) on low/moderate cc.

Reject as essential (a false positive — leave alone) when the burden is the decision logic: a genuine, irreducible algorithm whose lcc-total reflects real branching/shape it must have.

Choose the first unit (highest gap) that passes the guard. Discard essential-complexity false positives as you go. If none of the top 5 pass, report no qualifying target.

6. Emit the chosen target + evidence

Emit one chosen target with:

• ns, var, arity,
• file, line range (line–end-line),
• lcc-total with the per-dimension burdens (flow, state, shape, abstraction, dependency, working-set),
• cc,
• gap,
• the local findings for the unit,
• a coverage hint: whether a sibling test namespace exists for the target's ns, and whether any test references the target var (so the consuming task knows what test net it faces). Derive this by checking the component's test/ tree for a matching *_test.clj and grepping for the var name, e.g.:

  rg -l 'deftest|<var>' <component>/test
  

If no unit qualifies (step 4) or none of the top 5 pass the guard (step 5), emit a no-target report instead: state that no unit met lcc-total ≥ 5.0 ∧ gap ≥ 2.0 (or that the top-5 candidates were all essential), listing the candidates considered.