ChangeGuard — Change Impact Intelligence (VS Code Extension)
ChangeGuard is an open-source software change intelligence engine that helps developers answer a fundamental question before committing or releasing code:
"What could this code change affect?"
The ChangeGuard VS Code extension provides native editor integration, bringing deterministic change analysis, reverse dependency impact traversal, evidence tracking, and risk findings directly into your IDE.
🚀 Key Features in v0.1.1
- 🔍 Repository Analysis: Analyze modified Git files and compute affected downstream symbols, relationships, and rule findings.
- ⚡ Local-First & Offline: Runs 100% locally on your machine. No cloud dependencies, API keys, SaaS accounts, or remote servers required.
- 🛡️ Deterministic Rule Findings: Evaluates changes against built-in rules (e.g. public API changes, blast radius warnings).
- 📌 Evidence & Line-Level Navigation: Inspect concrete evidence items and jump directly to impacted source code files and lines.
- 🎨 Native VS Code UI: Integrates with the VS Code Activity Bar, TreeView panel, Diagnostic Collections (Problems tab), and Output Channel.
🛠️ How It Works
Git Changes
↓
Roslyn C# Symbol & Relationship Extraction
↓
In-Memory Dependency Graph Construction
↓
Reverse BFS Impact Traversal
↓
Deterministic Rule Engine Evaluation
↓
Evidence & Finding Aggregation
↓
VS Code Findings View & Problems Panel
- ChangeGuard detects modified files in your local Git workspace.
- The Roslyn engine extracts C# symbols and semantic relationships (inheritance, method calls, type usages).
- A dependency graph is constructed, and reverse BFS traversal identifies all impacted downstream consumers.
- Rules evaluate risk signals and aggregate findings with concrete AST & graph evidence.
- Results are rendered natively in VS Code with interactive navigation.
📥 Installation
- Open VS Code.
- Go to Extensions (
Ctrl+Shift+X or Cmd+Shift+X).
- Search for ChangeGuard — Change Impact Intelligence.
- Click Install.
Alternatively, install via command line using VSIX package:
code --install-extension auton_changeguard-0.1.1.vsix
🕹️ Commands
| Command |
Title |
Description |
changeguard.analyzeRepository |
ChangeGuard: Analyze Current Repository |
Analyzes the current workspace repository and displays impact findings. |
changeguard.analyzeChanges |
ChangeGuard: Analyze Changes |
Runs change detection pipeline on workspace changes. |
📊 Example Output
When a public method signature is modified:
High Severity (1)
└── Public API Change Detected — SampleApp.CustomerService.UpdateCustomerAddress
└── Method UpdateCustomerAddress parameter added (CustomerService.cs:43)
- Target Symbol:
SampleApp.CustomerService.UpdateCustomerAddress
- Severity: High
- Finding: Public API signature modification detected.
- Evidence: Parameter
newAddress added in CustomerService.cs line 43.
⚙️ Configuration Options
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
changeguard.cliPath |
"" |
Optional path to custom ChangeGuard CLI executable or .dll. Uses changeguard or local build fallback when empty. |
changeguard.targetBranch |
"main" |
Target branch for git diff comparison. |
changeguard.maxDepth |
10 |
Maximum traversal depth for reverse dependency impact graph. |
🔒 Privacy & Local-First
ChangeGuard operates entirely offline on your local workspace. It does NOT send your code, diffs, git history, or telemetry to external servers.
⚠️ Current Limitations (v0.1.0)
- Initial release supports C# / Roslyn codebases (.NET 9.0+).
- Requires a local Git repository workspace.
📜 License
Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.
🔗 Links
