Impact analysis example
What breaks when you change Astro (packages/astro)?
Real arc impact output on Astro (packages/astro) — same structure as the homepage demo. Know blast radius before you merge.
Project: Astro (packages/astro) · Score: 67.8/100 (Moderate technical debt) · 558 modules · 2,196 edges
Engineering decision simulation
Validation procedure 01 · merge vs. hold before output
Before arc impact
You plan a change to a high fan-in module in Astro (packages/astro). Would you merge without knowing blast radius?
Typical answer: hold — need dependency context.
After arc impact
Structured output below: score, hotspots, corridors, and high-risk modules — same field schema as the homepage proof.
Decision: confirm hold, narrow change, or inspect paths first.
Published as part of the validation record. Run locally: arc impact <file-you-are-changing>
Architectural Risk Map
Where risk accumulates by control surface — drill down Surface → Substrate → Mechanism → Evidence.
See control surfaces →Dependency evidence
Architecture visualization
Diagrams are generated from ArcSight analysis data. Dependency graph and risk map show key modules; subsystem view shows high-level structure.
Architecture score & metrics
Score: 67.8/100 · Stability: 1/100 · Status: at_risk · Confidence: 100%
- Dependency cycles: 100+
- Layer violations: 2
- Duplicate authorities: 83
Modules to inspect
One row per module. Fan-in is direct dependents. Blast radius is downstream modules reachable from that file.
- src/types/astro89 dependents
- src/core/errors75 dependents
- src/types/public/internal75 dependents
- src/core/logger/core71 dependents
- src/core/constants61 dependents
- src/assets/fonts/types28 dependents
- src/assets/fonts/definitions27 dependents
- src/content/consts15 dependents
- src/assets/fonts/types397 modules
- src/assets/fonts/definitions397 modules
- src/assets/fonts/constants397 modules
- src/assets/fonts/utils397 modules
- src/assets/fonts/core/optimize-fallbacks397 modules
- src/assets/fonts/config397 modules
- src/core/logger/core381 modules
- src/core/constants375 modules
| Module | Fan-in | Blast | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| src/assets/fonts/types | 28 | 397 | CRITICAL |
| src/assets/fonts/definitions | 27 | 397 | CRITICAL |
| src/assets/fonts/constants | 8 | 397 | CRITICAL |
| src/assets/fonts/utils | 8 | 397 | CRITICAL |
| src/assets/fonts/core/optimize-fallbacks | 6 | 397 | CRITICAL |
| src/assets/fonts/config | 2 | 397 | CRITICAL |
| src/core/logger/core | 71 | 381 | CRITICAL |
| src/core/constants | 61 | 375 | CRITICAL |
| src/content/consts | 15 | 374 | CRITICAL |
| src/types/astro | 89 | CRITICAL | |
| src/core/errors | 75 | CRITICAL | |
| src/types/public/internal | 75 | CRITICAL |
Architectural gravity centers
src/assets/fonts/types— concentrates too many responsibilitiessrc/assets/fonts/types— sits on a dependency cyclesrc/assets/fonts/types— shared utility hubsrc/assets/fonts/definitions— concentrates too many responsibilitiessrc/assets/fonts/definitions— sits on a dependency cycle
CLI workflow
Scan → Fix → Finish → Watch. Nothing else required.
arc scanFind issuesarc fixApply fixesarc finishResolve remainingarc watchKeep clean
Key takeaways
- •Structural scan reports dependency cycles — inspect impact paths before refactors that cross module boundaries.
- •High fan-in modules are change-risk zones; run
arc explain <path>before refactoring. - •Run the full workflow (analyze, hotspots, explain, impact, snapshot, drift) in your repo for deterministic architecture insights.
Run ArcSight on your repo
Install the CLI and run analyze, then hotspots and explain for the same workflow.
This case study is generated from ArcSight analysis data. View short analysis. View all analyses