Memtrace Change Impact Analysis

Overview

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, checks Cortex decision memory for recorded decisions/bans/contracts, and produces a risk-rated change plan.

Use this workflow when the change spans multiple symbols or needs a risk-rated plan. For a quick raw upstream/downstream radius around one known symbol, call get_impact directly.

Steps

1. Identify what's being changed

Find the target symbol(s):

• Use find_symbol if the user named specific functions/classes
• Use find_code if the user described behaviour ("the authentication middleware")

Collect symbol names (name, scope_path, file_path) for all targets — graph tools use names, not internal IDs.

2. Get 360° context for each target

For each symbol, call get_symbol_context (repo_id, symbol, file_path):

• Direct callers and callees
• Community membership (which module is this in?)
• Process membership (which execution flows does this participate in?)
• Cross-repo API callers (is this an endpoint called by other services?)

Decision: If cross-repo API callers exist, this change requires coordination with other teams. Flag this immediately.

3. Compute blast radius

For each target, call get_impact (repo_id, target) with direction: "both", depth: 5:

• Upstream impact: what depends on this symbol
• Downstream impact: what this symbol depends on
• Risk rating: Low / Medium / High / Critical

Decision: