Problem Statement

When a PR lands on bradygaster/squad, there's no automated way to answer:

• Which architectural boundaries does this PR cross?
• Which modules (mapped by ownership in routing.md) are impacted?
• What's the blast radius — if this breaks, what else breaks?
• Does this PR introduce new dependencies between modules that didn't exist before?
• Which squad members should review this, based on module ownership?

Today this is done by human judgment reading the diff. For AI agents making changes, there's no check at all — they don't know the boundaries they're crossing.

The Incident That Proves This Is Needed

Issue #631: @copilot accidentally deleted 361 source files in a single PR. An automated impact analysis would have:

1. Immediately flagged the PR as CRITICAL risk (>50 files deleted, >8 modules touched)
2. Posted an impact report as a PR comment with the blast radius
3. Auto-suggested all module owners + Flight for review
4. Blocked merge until Lead approval

Solution: Squad Impact — Automated PR Impact Analysis

Not a product feature. This is CI infrastructure for the Squad repo itself — a GitHub Action + reusable analysis script that runs on every PR to understand architectural impact.

High-Level Flow

PR opened on bradygaster/squad
    ↓
GitHub Action triggers (pull_request event)
    ↓
Action runs scripts/analyze-impact.mjs (Node.js script)
    ↓
Script analyzes diff against:
  - routing.md (module→agent ownership)
  - .github/CODEOWNERS (reviewer mapping)
  - package.json (workspace boundaries)
  - TEMPLATE_MANIFEST (critical files)
    ↓
Script outputs JSON impact report
    ↓
Action posts impact report as PR comment
    ↓
Action auto-requests reviewers + suggests squad:{agent} labels
    ↓
If CRITICAL: post merge warning

Outputs (PR Comment)

Example: PR #631 reanalyzed with this tool:

## 🔴 SQUAD IMPACT REPORT — PR #631

**Risk Tier:** CRITICAL (⚠️ Requires Lead approval before merge)

### 📦 Packages Affected (2 of 2)
- **squad-sdk** — 261 files deleted
- **squad-cli** — 100 files deleted

### 📁 Modules Touched (18 of 20)
- `src/adapter/` — 31 files (Primary: EECOM, Secondary: CAPCOM)
- `src/agents/` — 28 files (Primary: Procedures)
- `src/runtime/` — 24 files (Primary: GNC)
- `src/cli/` — 23 files (Primary: EECOM)
- `src/tools/` — 21 files (Primary: EECOM)
- ... (13 more modules)

### 💥 Impact Analysis

| Metric | Value | Status |
|--------|-------|--------|
| Files Changed | 361 | 🔴 CRITICAL (>50) |
| Modules Touched | 18 | 🔴 CRITICAL (>8) |
| Boundaries Crossed | 17 | 🔴 CRITICAL |
| New Dependency Edges | 12 | 🔴 HIGH |
| Critical Files Touched | 8 | 🔴 YES |

### 👥 Suggested Reviewers (by module ownership)
@squad/eecom (touched 5 modules) | @squad/gnc | @squad/procedures | @squad/flight (Architecture Lead - CRITICAL tier)

### 🏷️ Suggested Labels
- `squad:eecom`
- `squad:gnc`
- `squad:procedures`
- `impact:critical`
- `needs:flight-review`

Architecture

1. GitHub Action Workflow (.github/workflows/squad-impact.yml)

Triggers on PR, calculates impact, posts comment:

name: Squad Impact Analysis
on:
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]

jobs:
  analyze:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0  # needed for full diff
      
      - name: Analyze PR Impact
        run: node scripts/analyze-impact.mjs ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}
        env:
          GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
          
      - name: Post Impact Report
        run: |
          gh pr comment ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }} \
            --body "$(cat impact-report.md)"
        env:
          GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
      
      - name: Request Reviewers
        run: node scripts/request-reviewers.mjs ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}
        env:
          GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}

2. Impact Analysis Script (scripts/analyze-impact.mjs)

A reusable Node.js script (NOT in an SDK module) that:

1. Parses PR diff — gets list of added/modified/deleted files
2. Maps files → modules — using routing.md module ownership table
3. Detects boundaries — which modules are touched, which owners involved
4. Calculates risk tier — based on criteria below
5. Generates report — as Markdown, returns JSON for downstream use
6. Auto-suggests labels — squad:{agent} labels based on module ownership
7. Suggests reviewers — team members mapped from routing.md

Input:

// Usage:
// node scripts/analyze-impact.mjs <PR-number>

const impact = await analyzeImpactFromPR(prNumber, {
  routingFile: ".squad/routing.md",
  codeownersFile: ".github/CODEOWNERS",
  packageJsonFile: "package.json",
  workspacePath: "packages/*",
});

console.log(impact);
// Output: { riskTier, modulesTouched, reviewers, labels, report }

Output (JSON):

{
  "riskTier": "CRITICAL",
  "filesChanged": 361,
  "filesDeleted": 298,
  "modulesTouched": ["src/adapter/", "src/agents/", "src/runtime/", ...],
  "moduleCount": 18,
  "boundariesCrossed": 17,
  "newDependencyEdges": 12,
  "criticalFilesTouched": ["src/index.ts", "package.json", ...],
  "suggestedReviewers": ["@squad/eecom", "@squad/flight"],
  "suggestedLabels": ["squad:eecom", "impact:critical", "needs:flight-review"],
  "markdownReport": "## 🔴 SQUAD IMPACT REPORT..."
}

3. Data Sources (all already exist in the repo)

4. Repo-Level Integration (NOT an SDK export)

scripts/
├── analyze-impact.mjs           ← Main analysis engine
├── request-reviewers.mjs        ← POST /repos/.../pulls/.../requested_reviewers
├── impact-utils/
│   ├── parse-routing.mjs        ← Read & parse routing.md
│   ├── parse-manifest.mjs       ← Extract TEMPLATE_MANIFEST from templates.ts
│   ├── diff-parser.mjs          ← Parse `gh pr diff` output
│   └── risk-scorer.mjs          ← Calculate risk tier (logic below)
│
.github/workflows/
└── squad-impact.yml             ← Workflow definition (above)

Note: This is NOT a product feature export in packages/squad-sdk/. It's internal CI tooling that lives in scripts/ and .github/workflows/.

Risk Tier Calculation

Risk tier is calculated by combining multiple factors:

Special Cases:

• CRITICAL merge block: CRITICAL PRs require Lead (Flight) approval before merge
• Auto-approve signal: LOW-tier PRs can be fast-tracked (optional)

Implementation Phases

Phase 1: Diff Parser + Risk Scorer (MVP)

• scripts/analyze-impact.mjs — parse gh pr diff, map files → modules, calculate risk
• scripts/impact-utils/ — helper modules (routing parser, risk scorer)
• Test with manual runs: node scripts/analyze-impact.mjs 733
• Owner: EECOM + Booster | Effort: 1 session

Phase 2: GitHub Action Integration

• .github/workflows/squad-impact.yml — trigger on PR, call script, post comment
• scripts/request-reviewers.mjs — auto-request reviewers based on module ownership
• Test with new test PRs
• Owner: Booster + EECOM | Effort: 1 session

Phase 3: Merge Gating (Optional)

• Add environment protection rules — block CRITICAL PRs until Lead approves
• Or: GitHub Action that adds "needs:flight-review" label (non-blocking but visible)
• Owner: Flight | Effort: 0.5 session

Acceptance Criteria

Phase 1 (MVP) ✅ DONE when:

• scripts/analyze-impact.mjs runs successfully on any PR diff
• Correctly parses routing.md module→owner table
• Maps changed files to modules using directory tree logic
• Calculates risk tier per criteria above
• Outputs JSON + Markdown report
• Manual test: re-run on PR P0: @copilot accidentally deleted 361 source files on dev (commit 1ab2f5c) #631, correctly identifies CRITICAL tier + 18 modules

Phase 2 (Action Integration) ✅ DONE when:

• .github/workflows/squad-impact.yml triggers on all PRs
• Posts impact report as PR comment within 2 minutes
• Auto-suggests squad:{agent} labels based on touched modules
• Tests on 3 real PRs (varied impact): LOW, MEDIUM, CRITICAL
• Reviewers can see at a glance which modules were touched and who owns them

Phase 3 (Merge Gating) ✅ DONE when (if implemented):

• CRITICAL PRs are labeled needs:flight-review and/or blocked by environment rule
• Flight can approve with branch protection override if intentional
• False positives <5% (measure over 20 PRs)

Related Issues & References

• P0: @copilot accidentally deleted 361 source files on dev (commit 1ab2f5c) #631 — The incident that proves this is needed (AI agent deleted 361 files with no warnings)
• PRD: Versioned file layout manifest - single source of truth for directory structure #670 — File layout manifest (provides foundation for critical file detection)
• docs: Add doc-impact review process to team workflow #291, docs: Add doc-impact review process to team workflow #292 — Doc-impact review (earlier, narrower precursor for docs only)
• routing.md — Module ownership map that powers the analysis
• templates.ts — TEMPLATE_MANIFEST with file criticality flags

Notes

• Not intended as a product export. This is Squad repo-internal CI infrastructure.
• Degrades gracefully: Minimum viable analysis = package.json + CODEOWNERS even without routing.md
• Future enhancement: Could feed impact data into automated test selection (run only tests for touched modules)
• Future enhancement: Could integrate with Slack/Teams to notify team leads when their modules change