What is noodlbox-change-planning?

The noodlbox-change-planning skill is a powerful developer tool designed for automated blast radius analysis and impact detection within git-based workflows. It enables engineers to visualize the ripple effects of uncommitted changes, providing a data-driven risk assessment before code is merged or committed. By mapping code-level modifications to business processes, it helps maintain codebase stability and streamlines the technical review process.

When should I use noodlbox-change-planning?

noodlbox-change-planning is useful in the following scenarios: • Pre-commit Impact Analysis: Automatically evaluate staged changes to identify unintended side effects on downstream processes before finalizing a commit. • Pull Request Risk Assessment: Assist reviewers in identifying high-risk PRs by quantifying the number of impacted symbols and cross-module dependencies. • Safe Refactoring Planning: Map out the dependencies of core functions or symbols to understand the full scope of a planned refactor and prevent regressions. • Merge Safety Verification: Compare feature branches against the main branch to detect potential conflicts or logic breaks in complex, multi-contributor environments. • Commit Splitting Guidance: Use impact metrics to determine when a single set of changes is too broad and should be decomposed into smaller, more manageable commits.

name	noodlbox-change-planning
description	>-
author	noodlbox
version	"{{VERSION}}"

Change Planning

Analyze uncommitted git changes and understand their ripple effects through the codebase.

Quick Decision

Workflow	change_scope	base_ref
Before staging	`"unstaged"`	-
Before commit	`"staged"`	-
All uncommitted	`"all"`	-
Compare to branch	`"compare"`	`"main"`

Tool Reference

noodlbox_detect_impact

Detect which processes are affected by git changes.

noodlbox_detect_impact(
  repository: "current",
  change_scope: "all",
  include_content: false,
  max_processes: 10
)

Parameters:

change_scope: What changes to analyze (see table above)
base_ref: Branch/commit to compare against (for "compare" scope)
include_content: Include symbol source code in response
max_processes: Limit results per page

Risk Assessment

Metric	Low Risk	Medium Risk	High Risk
`changed_symbols_count`	< 5	5-15	> 15
`total_impacted_processes`	< 10	10-30	> 30
Cross-community changes	None	1-2	> 2

Workflow Checklist

Pre-Commit Review

Pre-Commit Checklist:
- [ ] Run impact detection (scope: staged)
- [ ] Check changed_symbols count
- [ ] Review each impacted_process
- [ ] Verify changes are intentional
- [ ] Split commit if impact > 10 processes

Code Review

Code Review Checklist:
- [ ] Run impact detection (scope: compare, base_ref: target_branch)
- [ ] Check cross-community impact
- [ ] Verify test coverage for impacted areas
- [ ] Flag high-centrality changes
- [ ] Document coordination needs

For detailed workflow guidance, see workflows.md.

Example: Pre-Commit Check

Task: "What will my changes affect before I commit?"

Step 1: Run impact detection
noodlbox_detect_impact(
  repository: "current",
  change_scope: "staged"
)

→ Summary:
  changed_symbols_count: 3
  total_impacted_processes: 7

→ Changed symbols:
  - validatePayment (src/payments/validator.ts:42) - Modified
  - PaymentError (src/payments/errors.ts:15) - Modified
  - formatAmount (src/payments/utils.ts:88) - Modified

→ Impacted processes:
  - "Checkout flow" (5 steps affected)
  - "Payment retry" (3 steps affected)
  - "Webhook handler" (2 steps affected)

Step 2: Assess risk
Changed: 3 symbols → Low
Impacted: 7 processes → Low
Cross-community: None → Low
Overall: Low risk

Step 3: Verify intentionality
All impacted processes are payment-related.
Changes are contained within the payments module.
✓ Safe to commit

Checklist for this example:

- [x] Run impact detection (scope: staged)
- [x] Check changed_symbols count (3 - low)
- [x] Review impacted processes (7 - all payment-related)
- [x] Verify changes are intentional (yes, contained)
- [ ] Split commit if needed (not needed)

Output Format

Low Impact (< 10 processes)

## Impact Summary

- **Changed**: 3 symbols in 2 files
- **Affected**: 7 processes
- **Risk**: Low

## Changed Code

| Symbol | File | Type |
|--------|------|------|
| validatePayment | src/payments/validator.ts:42 | Modified |

## Affected Flows

1. **Checkout flow** - 5 steps include changed symbols
   - Entry: `handleCheckout` → `processPayment` → `validatePayment`
   - Risk: Low (isolated change)

## Recommendations

- [ ] Run payment integration tests
- [ ] Verify checkout flow manually

High Impact (> 10 processes)

Delegate to codebase-analyst agent for detailed analysis.

When to Use Something Else

Need	Use Instead
Explore unfamiliar code	exploring-codebases skill
Generate documentation	generating-documentation skill
Debug failing code	debugging skill
Plan large refactors	refactoring skill

noodlbox-change-planning

When & Why to Use This Skill

Use Cases