Agent skill
ix-impact
Change risk analysis — blast radius, affected systems, and what to test. Depth scales with risk level; low-risk targets stop early.
Install this agent skill to your Project
npx add-skill https://github.com/ix-infrastructure/ix-codex-plugin/tree/main/plugins/ix-memory/skills/ix-impact
SKILL.md
Check command -v ix first. If unavailable, use Grep to find all usages and estimate impact manually.
Goal
Answer: what breaks if this changes, and is it safe to proceed? Stop as early as the risk level allows.
Phase 1 — Risk score (always)
ix impact $ARGUMENTS --format json
Immediately classify:
| Risk level | Action |
|---|---|
low + < 3 dependents |
STOP — safe to proceed. Report and suggest verification targets. |
medium OR 3–10 dependents |
Go to Phase 2 |
high or critical OR > 10 dependents |
Go to Phase 2 + 3 |
Phase 2 — Callers and dependents (medium/high/critical)
Run in parallel:
ix callers $ARGUMENTS --limit 20 --format json
ix depends $ARGUMENTS --depth 2 --format json
Extract: direct callers by name and subsystem, transitive count.
Stop here if risk is medium: report callers, suggest verification, done.
Phase 3 — Import chain and subsystem spread (high/critical only)
ix imported-by $ARGUMENTS --format json
Cross-reference callers + dependents + importers to identify:
- Which subsystems are in the blast radius
- Whether the change crosses an architectural boundary
- Any tests that cover the affected paths
Output
## Impact: [target]
**Risk level:** <critical | high | medium | low>
**Verdict:** <SAFE TO PROCEED | REVIEW CALLERS FIRST | NEEDS CHANGE PLAN>
**Blast radius:**
- Direct dependents: N
- Transitive (depth 2): M
- Subsystems affected: [list — only if phase 3 ran]
**Key callers:** [top 5, with subsystem label]
**At-risk behaviors:** [from ix impact atRiskBehavior field]
**Recommended action:**
- low: proceed, verify [specific callers]
- medium: test [caller list] after change
- high/critical: run `ix-plan $ARGUMENTS` before editing
Never read source code in this skill. Risk analysis is purely graph-based.
Recommended Agent Skills
Expand your agent's capabilities with these related and highly-rated skills.
ix-architecture
Analyze system design — structure, coupling, code smells, and high-risk hotspots. Purely graph-based, no code reads.
ix-understand
Build a mental model of a system, subsystem, or the whole repo. Graph-first, no code reads unless necessary.
ix-plan
Generate a risk-ordered implementation plan for a set of targets. Assesses blast radius per target, finds data flows between them, and produces a safe change sequence.
ix-investigate
Deep dive into a symbol, feature, or bug. Graph-first, minimal code reads, early stopping when sufficient evidence found.
ix-debug
Root cause analysis — trace execution path to a failure, narrow candidates, read minimal source only at suspected failure points.
ix-docs
Generate narrative-first, importance-weighted documentation for a repo, system, or subsystem with a selective reference layer. Use --full for deeper module/class/method coverage.
Didn't find tool you were looking for?