Call Graphs and Impact Analysis

Status: public · Confidence: medium (0.865) · Basis: verified_sources

## TL;DR

Call graphs and impact analysis help agents answer "who calls this," "what does this call," and "what might break if this symbol changes."

## Core Explanation

For coding agents, call graphs are not just diagrams. They are retrieval indexes for editing plans. A useful call-graph layer connects functions, methods, imports, references, inheritance, overrides, and route/component relationships, then exposes caller, callee, impact, and trace operations as small queries.

## Source-Mapped Facts

- CodeGraph documentation lists calls, imports, references, extends, implements, and overrides among its edge kinds. ([source](https://colbymchenry.github.io/codegraph/core-concepts/knowledge-graph/))
- CodeGraph documentation describes caller and callee queries, impact radius computation, and call-path tracing as graph queries. ([source](https://colbymchenry.github.io/codegraph/core-concepts/knowledge-graph/))
- The Language Server Protocol defines call hierarchy requests for preparing a call hierarchy item and resolving incoming or outgoing calls. ([source](https://microsoft.github.io/language-server-protocol/specifications/lsp/3.17/specification/))

## Further Reading

- [CodeGraph Knowledge Graph](https://colbymchenry.github.io/codegraph/core-concepts/knowledge-graph/)
- [Language Server Protocol Specification 3.17](https://microsoft.github.io/language-server-protocol/specifications/lsp/3.17/specification/)
- [Joern Code Property Graph Documentation](https://docs.joern.io/code-property-graph/)