Code Quality Auditor (L3 Worker)

Specialized worker auditing code complexity, method signatures, algorithms, and constants management.

Purpose & Scope

• Worker in ln-620 coordinator pipeline - invoked by ln-620-codebase-auditor
• Audit code quality (Categories 5+6+NEW: Medium Priority)
• Check complexity metrics, method signature quality, algorithmic efficiency, constants management
• Return structured findings with severity, location, effort, recommendations
• Calculate compliance score (X/10) for Code Quality category

Inputs (from Coordinator)

MANDATORY READ: Load shared/references/task_delegation_pattern.md#audit-coordinator--worker-contract for contextStore structure.

Receives contextStore with: tech_stack, best_practices, principles, codebase_root.

Domain-aware: Supports domain_mode + current_domain (see audit_output_schema.md#domain-aware-worker-output).

Workflow

1. Parse context — extract fields, determine scan_path (domain-aware if specified)

2. Scan codebase for violations

   • All Grep/Glob patterns use scan_path (not codebase_root)
   • Example: Grep(pattern="if.*if.*if", path=scan_path) for nesting detection

3. Collect findings with severity, location, effort, recommendation

   • Tag each finding with domain: domain_name (if domain-aware)

4. Calculate score using penalty algorithm

5. Return JSON result to coordinator

   • Include domain and scan_path fields (if domain-aware)

Audit Rules (Priority: MEDIUM)

1. Cyclomatic Complexity

What: Too many decision points in single function (> 10)

Detection:

• Count if/else, switch/case, ternary, &&, ||, for, while
• Use tools: eslint-plugin-complexity, radon (Python), gocyclo (Go)

Severity:

• HIGH: Complexity > 20 (extremely hard to test)
• MEDIUM: Complexity 11-20 (refactor recommended)
• LOW: Complexity 8-10 (acceptable but monitor)

Recommendation: Split function, extract helper methods, use early returns

Effort: M-L (depends on complexity)

2. Deep Nesting (> 4 levels)

What: Nested if/for/while blocks too deep

Detection:

• Count indentation levels
• Pattern: if { if { if { if { if { ... } } } } }

Severity:

• HIGH: > 6 levels (unreadable)
• MEDIUM: 5-6 levels
• LOW: 4 levels

Recommendation: Extract functions, use guard clauses, invert conditions

Effort: M (refactor structure)

3. Long Methods (> 50 lines)

What: Functions too long, doing too much

Detection:

• Count lines between function start and end
• Exclude comments, blank lines

Severity:

• HIGH: > 100 lines
• MEDIUM: 51-100 lines
• LOW: 40-50 lines (borderline)

Recommendation: Split into smaller functions, apply Single Responsibility

Effort: M (extract logic)

4. God Classes/Modules (> 500 lines)

What: Files with too many responsibilities

Detection:

• Count lines in file (exclude comments)
• Check number of public methods/functions

Severity:

• HIGH: > 1000 lines
• MEDIUM: 501-1000 lines
• LOW: 400-500 lines

Recommendation: Split into multiple files, apply separation of concerns

Effort: L (major refactor)

5. Too Many Parameters (> 5)

What: Functions with excessive parameters

Detection:

• Count function parameters
• Check constructors, methods

Severity:

• MEDIUM: 6-8 parameters
• LOW: 5 parameters (borderline)

Recommendation: Use parameter object, builder pattern, default parameters

Effort: S-M (refactor signature + calls)

6. O(n²) or Worse Algorithms

What: Inefficient nested loops over collections

Detection:

• Nested for loops: for (i) { for (j) { ... } }
• Nested array methods: arr.map(x => arr.filter(...))

Severity:

• HIGH: O(n²) in hot path (API request handler)
• MEDIUM: O(n²) in occasional operations
• LOW: O(n²) on small datasets (n < 100)

Recommendation: Use hash maps, optimize with single pass, use better data structures

Effort: M (algorithm redesign)

7. N+1 Query Patterns

What: ORM lazy loading causing N+1 queries

Detection:

• Find loops with database queries inside
• Check ORM patterns: users.forEach(u => u.getPosts())

Severity:

• CRITICAL: N+1 in API endpoint (performance disaster)
• HIGH: N+1 in frequent operations
• MEDIUM: N+1 in admin panel

Recommendation: Use eager loading, batch queries, JOIN

Effort: M (change ORM query)

8. Constants Management (NEW)

What: Magic numbers/strings, decentralized constants, duplicates

Detection:

Severity:

• HIGH: Magic numbers in business logic (payment amounts, statuses)
• MEDIUM: Duplicate constants (same value defined 3+ times)
• MEDIUM: No central constants file
• LOW: Magic strings in logging/debugging

Recommendation:

• Create central constants file (constants.ts, config.py, constants.go)
• Extract magic numbers to named constants: const STATUS_ACTIVE = 1
• Consolidate duplicates, import from central file
• Use enums for related constants

Effort: M (extract constants, update imports, consolidate)

9. Method Signature Quality

What: Poor method contracts reducing readability and maintainability

Detection:

Severity:

• MEDIUM: Boolean flag params (use enum/strategy), unclear return types
• LOW: Too many optional params, inconsistent naming

Recommendation:

• Boolean flags: replace with enum, strategy pattern, or separate methods
• Optional params: group into config/options dataclass
• Naming: standardize verb conventions per module (get_ for sync, fetch_ for async, etc.)
• Return types: use TypedDict, NamedTuple, or dataclass instead of raw dict/tuple

Effort: S-M (refactor signatures + callers)

Scoring Algorithm

MANDATORY READ: Load shared/references/audit_scoring.md for unified scoring formula.

Output Format

Return JSON to coordinator:

Global mode output:

{
  "category": "Code Quality",
  "score": 6,
  "total_issues": 12,
  "critical": 1,
  "high": 3,
  "medium": 5,
  "low": 3,
  "checks": [
    {"id": "cyclomatic_complexity", "name": "Cyclomatic Complexity", "status": "failed", "details": "2 functions exceed threshold"},
    {"id": "deep_nesting", "name": "Deep Nesting", "status": "warning", "details": "1 function with 5 levels"},
    {"id": "long_methods", "name": "Long Methods", "status": "passed", "details": "No methods exceed 50 lines"},
    {"id": "magic_numbers", "name": "Magic Numbers", "status": "failed", "details": "5 magic numbers found"}
  ],
  "findings": [...]
}

Domain-aware mode output (NEW):

{
  "category": "Code Quality",
  "score": 7,
  "domain": "orders",
  "scan_path": "src/orders",
  "total_issues": 8,
  "critical": 0,
  "high": 2,
  "medium": 4,
  "low": 2,
  "checks": [
    {"id": "cyclomatic_complexity", "name": "Cyclomatic Complexity", "status": "failed", "details": "1 function exceeds threshold"},
    {"id": "deep_nesting", "name": "Deep Nesting", "status": "passed", "details": "No deep nesting detected"},
    {"id": "long_methods", "name": "Long Methods", "status": "passed", "details": "No methods exceed 50 lines"},
    {"id": "magic_numbers", "name": "Magic Numbers", "status": "warning", "details": "1 magic number found"}
  ],
  "findings": [
    {
      "severity": "HIGH",
      "location": "src/orders/services/OrderService.ts:120",
      "issue": "Cyclomatic complexity 22 (threshold: 10)",
      "principle": "Code Complexity / Maintainability",
      "recommendation": "Split into smaller methods",
      "effort": "M",
      "domain": "orders"
    },
    {
      "severity": "MEDIUM",
      "location": "src/orders/controllers/OrderController.ts:45",
      "issue": "Magic number '3' used for order status",
      "principle": "Constants Management",
      "recommendation": "Extract: const ORDER_STATUS_SHIPPED = 3",
      "effort": "S",
      "domain": "orders"
    }
  ]
}

Critical Rules

• Do not auto-fix: Report only
• Domain-aware scanning: If domain_mode="domain-aware", scan ONLY scan_path (not entire codebase)
• Tag findings: Include domain field in each finding when domain-aware
• Context-aware: Small functions (n < 100) with O(n²) may be acceptable
• Constants detection: Exclude test files, configs, examples
• Metrics tools: Use existing tools when available (ESLint complexity plugin, radon, gocyclo)

Definition of Done

• contextStore parsed (including domain_mode and current_domain)
• scan_path determined (domain path or codebase root)
• All 9 checks completed (scoped to scan_path):
  • complexity, nesting, length, god classes, parameters, O(n²), N+1, constants, method signatures
• Findings collected with severity, location, effort, recommendation, domain
• Score calculated
• JSON returned to coordinator with domain metadata

Reference Files

• Audit scoring formula: shared/references/audit_scoring.md
• Audit output schema: shared/references/audit_output_schema.md
• Code quality rules: references/code_quality_rules.md

Version: 3.0.0 Last Updated: 2025-12-23