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Impact analysis example

What breaks when you change Nx (packages/nx)?

Real arc impact output on Nx (packages/nx) — same structure as the homepage demo. Know blast radius before you merge.

Project: Nx (packages/nx) · Score: 68.5/100 (Moderate technical debt) · 589 modules · 2,843 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 Nx (packages/nx). 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.

Dependency graph
Dependency graph for this codebase
Subsystem architecture
Subsystem architecture for this codebase
Risk map
Risk map for this codebase

Architecture score & metrics

Score: 68.5/100 · Stability: 1/100 · Status: at_risk · Confidence: 100%

  • Dependency cycles: 100+
  • Duplicate authorities: 41

Modules to inspect

One row per module. Fan-in is direct dependents. Blast radius is downstream modules reachable from that file.

Fan-in, direct dependents
  • src/config/nx-json123 dependents
  • src/utils/workspace-root112 dependents
  • src/config/project-graph105 dependents
  • src/utils/output102 dependents
  • src/utils/fileutils71 dependents
  • src/native64 dependents
  • src/config/task-graph38 dependents
  • src/utils/path26 dependents
Blast radius, downstream modules
  • src/utils/fileutils478 modules
  • src/utils/workspace-root476 modules
  • src/utils/versions467 modules
  • src/native465 modules
  • src/utils/path454 modules
  • src/config/task-graph453 modules
  • src/config/nx-json452 modules
ModuleFan-inBlastRisk
src/utils/fileutils71478CRITICAL
src/utils/workspace-root112476CRITICAL
src/utils/versions21467CRITICAL
src/native64465CRITICAL
src/utils/path26454CRITICAL
src/config/task-graph38453CRITICAL
src/config/nx-json123452CRITICAL
src/config/project-graph105CRITICAL
src/utils/output102CRITICAL

Architectural gravity centers

  • src/utils/fileutils— concentrates too many responsibilities
  • src/utils/fileutils— shared utility hub
  • src/utils/workspace-root— concentrates too many responsibilities
  • src/utils/workspace-root— shared utility hub
  • src/utils/versions— concentrates too many responsibilities

CLI workflow

Scan → Fix → Finish → Watch. Nothing else required.

  • arc scanFind issues
  • arc fixApply fixes
  • arc finishResolve remaining
  • arc watchKeep clean

More commands (explain, impact, guard…) →

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.

npm install -g arcsight
arc analyze
Install ArcSight →

This case study is generated from ArcSight analysis data. View short analysis. View all analyses