Catching complexity before it compounds

ImpactGate flags changes that pile complexity onto already complex code. It runs as a CLI tool, git hook, or plugin for GitHub, GitLab, and Jenkins.

The gradual decay pattern

A class gains one method, then another, then another. Each change looks reasonable alone, but over dozens of edits the class ends up doing five jobs.

“That slow accretion is what we call structural decay (also considered cohesive erosion).”

How the impact formula works

Impact equals files changed times the sum of existing complexity times cyclomatic complexity times changed lines. It scores changes against a base branch.

Existing complexity is the key

Adding a new file is cheap because there's nothing there to make worse. Adding a complex method to an already heavy class is expensive.

“WMC_other is the complexity that was already in the file or class you are editing, measured before your change.”

Different from SonarQube

SonarQube scores the state of code. ImpactGate scores the marginal cost of a change, weighted by what it lands on.

“It's the increment that turns a heavy class into a god class nobody can safely edit.”

Works across 17 languages

The tool is language agnostic, scoring Java, C#, Python, Go, JavaScript, TypeScript, Rust, and ten more languages the same way throughout.

Three scoring modes

Score staged changes before commit, uncommitted edits against HEAD, or committed branches against main for CI and PR review.

Files ranked for refactoring

Every report lists files to consider refactoring, ranked by their share of impact. It surfaces god classes before they block anything.

Grade against a distribution curve

Instead of guessing a threshold, grade changes by percentile against a distribution. The tool blends a seed prior with your project's own history.

“A raw threshold is hard to set. A typical change's impact varies by orders of magnitude across languages and projects.”

Configure with a YAML file

Set warn and block thresholds, enforcement mode, and curve settings in a config file at your repo root. CLI flags override the file.

GitHub Actions integration

Add a workflow that scores PR branches and posts results as a sticky comment. In block mode, the job fails when impact exceeds the threshold.

GitLab and Jenkins support

GitLab CI gets a ready made job that posts sticky notes to merge requests. Jenkins gets a pipeline snippet that archives reports.