code_analyzer

Real-time Watching

Refactoroscope includes a real-time watching capability that monitors your codebase for changes and automatically re-analyzes affected files.

How It Works

The watch feature uses the watchdog library to monitor file system events in your project directory. When changes are detected, Refactoroscope performs an incremental analysis of the modified files and updates the results in real-time.

Usage

To start watching your project directory:

uv run refactoroscope watch .

You can also specify a specific directory to watch:

uv run refactoroscope watch /path/to/your/project

Including Complexity Analysis

Complexity analysis is enabled by default when watching. To disable it:

uv run refactoroscope watch . --no-complexity

AI-Powered Analysis

To enable AI-powered suggestions during watching:

uv run refactoroscope watch . --ai

Note that AI analysis is performed only on files that change, not on the entire codebase each time.

Output Format

The watch command provides a terminal UI that updates in real-time with:

• Recently modified files
• Analysis results for changed files
• Summary statistics
• Any code smells or issues detected

Configuration

You can configure the watching behavior through the .refactoroscope.yml configuration file:

watch:
  # Debounce delay in seconds to prevent excessive analysis
  debounce_delay: 1.0
  
  # Whether to analyze on file creation events
  analyze_on_create: true
  
  # Whether to analyze on file modification events
  analyze_on_modify: true
  
  # Whether to analyze on file deletion events
  analyze_on_delete: true
  
  # Patterns to ignore (in addition to .gitignore)
  ignore_patterns:
    - "*.log"
    - "*.tmp"
    - ".DS_Store"

Limitations

1. Performance: Continuous monitoring may consume system resources
2. Large Projects: For very large codebases, the initial analysis may take some time
3. File Locks: Files that are locked by other processes may not be analyzed immediately
4. Network Drives: Watching network drives may not work reliably on all platforms

Best Practices

1. Exclude Build Artifacts: Add build artifacts and temporary files to ignore patterns
2. Adjust Debounce Delay: Increase the debounce delay for projects with frequent changes
3. Use with Version Control: The watch feature works best with version-controlled projects
4. Monitor Resource Usage: Keep an eye on CPU and memory usage during extended watching sessions

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