Valerian Impact — VS Code Extension

Instant blast radius and architectural risk scores for every symbol, file, and endpoint — directly inside your editor.

Valerian builds a live code graph of your repository (files, functions, API endpoints, React components, database models, events, environment variables) and computes precise impact scores whenever you change anything. This extension surfaces that intelligence at your cursor without leaving VS Code.

Features

Hover Impact Summary

Hover over any symbol, file path, route string, or environment variable to see an inline risk card:

Valerian Impact · function getUsers
🟡 MEDIUM · score 4.2/10 · affected 18
Entity: `function:getUsers`
Top affected files:
- `src/api/handlers/user.ts`
- `src/services/user.service.ts`
- `frontend/src/hooks/useUser.ts`

Side Panel — Full Impact Report

Open the full panel via right-click or keyboard shortcut. Shows:

Section	Details
Risk badge	Color-coded CRITICAL / HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW with score
Direct Impact	Files, functions, endpoints, components, DB models, events, env vars
Transitive Impact	Total affected assets across the whole graph
Propagation Paths	Top 8 files with dependent count and blast-radius targets

Commands

Command	Shortcut	Description
`Valerian: Show Impact Radius`	`Ctrl+Alt+I` / `Cmd+Alt+I`	Impact for symbol at cursor
`Valerian: Show Impact For Selection`	`Ctrl+Alt+Shift+I` / `Cmd+Alt+Shift+I`	Impact for selected text
`Valerian: Clear Impact Cache`	—	Force fresh results on next query

Right-click in any editor file to access the commands from the context menu.

Status Bar

A live status bar item in the bottom-right shows the last risk level. Click it to re-run the query on the current cursor position.

Smart Entity Detection

The extension automatically detects what you're hovering over and picks the right entity type:

Pattern	Entity type
`router.post('/api/users', …)`	`endpoint`
`src/api/users.ts`	`file`
`DATABASE_URL`	`env_var`
`user.created`	`event`
`UserCard` (PascalCase)	`component`
`getUsers` (camelCase)	`function`
Current open file	`file` (fallback)

Requirements

Valerian backend running and reachable (default: http://localhost:8080)
The backend must have the Impact Query API enabled (POST /api/v1/impact/query)
Your repository must have been scanned by Valerian's archscan pipeline

Quick start with Valerian backend

# Clone and start Valerian
git clone https://github.com/valerian-io/valerian
cd valerian
docker compose up -d          # starts backend + FalkorDB graph store
./scripts/scan.sh .           # scan your repo into the graph

Then install this extension and open your project.

Configuration

Open Settings → search valerianImpact to configure:

Setting	Default	Description
`valerianImpact.apiBaseUrl`	`http://localhost:8080`	Valerian backend URL
`valerianImpact.apiKey`	`""`	Optional `X-API-Key` header for auth
`valerianImpact.graph`	`""`	Graph name (empty = backend default)
`valerianImpact.graphs`	`""`	Comma-separated graph list for federated cross-repo impact. Overrides `valerianImpact.graph` when set.
`valerianImpact.depth`	`3`	Traversal depth (1–10)
`valerianImpact.limit`	`120`	Max results per category (1–500)
`valerianImpact.requestTimeoutMs`	`2500`	Per-request timeout in ms
`valerianImpact.riskVersion`	`v2`	Risk policy version (`v1` or `v2`)
`valerianImpact.hoverEnabled`	`true`	Enable/disable hover cards
`valerianImpact.hoverMinWordLength`	`3`	Minimum token length to trigger hover
`valerianImpact.cacheTtlMs`	`30000`	Cache TTL in ms (1 s – 5 min)

Example `settings.json`

{
  "valerianImpact.apiBaseUrl": "https://valerian.internal.example.com",
  "valerianImpact.apiKey": "vk_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxx",
  "valerianImpact.graphs": "valerian:acme/frontend:main,valerian:acme/backend:main,valerian:acme/worker:main",
  "valerianImpact.depth": 4,
  "valerianImpact.hoverEnabled": true
}

Local Development

# From repo root
cd plugins/vscode-valerian-impact

npm install          # install dependencies
npm run check        # TypeScript type-check (no emit)
npm run test         # run unit tests (vitest)
npm run build        # production bundle → out/extension.js
npm run dev          # watch mode for iterative development

Press F5 in VS Code with the plugin folder open to launch the Extension Development Host.

How Risk Scoring Works

Valerian's v2 risk model combines:

Blast radius — how many downstream assets (files, endpoints, components, DB models) are reachable
Connectivity — how many dependents reference each changed file
Asset weight — endpoints and DB models carry higher risk than internal utilities
Confidence — how complete the graph coverage is

Scores range from 0–10:

0–2.9 → LOW (green)
3–5.9 → MEDIUM (yellow)
6–7.9 → HIGH (orange)
8–10 → CRITICAL (red)

Privacy & Data

The extension sends only the entity identifier (file path, function name, route string, etc.) to the configured Valerian backend. No source code is transmitted. All analysis runs on your self-hosted or private-cloud Valerian instance.

License

MIT — see LICENSE

Valerian Impact

valerian