Open_Ultra_SAST/.kiro/specs/engine-change-scoped-analysis/brief.md

Engine change-scoped analysis (G2 workstream)

Status: proposed / in progress (opened 2026-10-11). Owner: engine. Tracks a concrete lever for the engine-detection gap found while driving the G0 baseline. This is G2 ("improve what moves the unseen-repo numbers"), gated on the pool metric; it is NOT part of the G0 record-07 baseline (that runs on the quick-rule tier).

Problem (measured, not assumed)

On real unseen vulnerability changes the engine produces no finding — but the diagnosis (live, 300 s long-deadline replays) shows it is usually not a detection-capability gap:

• Clean Python injection change (aws/bedrock-agentcore-sdk-python, install_packages, introducing, 3-file diff): wall=303 s, hit the deadline. The ranker found candidates (static_rank=1.0) but selected: [] and every candidate deferred with reason: deadline_exhausted, analysis_not_started=deadline_exhausted, change_context_incomplete. Zero analyses ran. And the ranked candidates were repo-wide and unrelated to the push (auth.py access_control/config_secrets), not the changed install_packages. The engine is trying to re-audit the whole repo and runs out of budget before analyzing the change.
• Noisy last_touch config_secrets change (jenkinsci/metrics-plugin, 14-file diff): finished in 206 s but comparison_unknown + capability_unavailable + eligibility_provenance_mismatch + contributor-scan ... projection_unavailable. Multi-causal; correspondence was one part (fixed separately, commit c39fbb8), capability registry is Task 8.3.

Hypothesis

A pre-push hook should vet the code this push changed, not re-scan the whole repository. Seeding/scoping the engine's analysis to the changed declarations and their dataflow neighborhood (the change_sites are already in the replay spec) should let analysis actually run within budget instead of being deferred — which is where detection is being lost, not in Joern's capability.

Anchors (confirm in increment 1)

• src/openultrasast/rank.py — the static-evidence ranker (ranking_mode="evidence", existing-static-evidence-v1).
• src/openultrasast/mapping.py — builds the selected/deferred scope + the budget allocation that defers on deadline_exhausted.
• src/openultrasast/push/policy.py, push/runner.py — consume the scope; change_sites arrive via the push input.
• benchmarks/unseen/replay_entry.py — carries changed_paths / declaration_paths in the spec.

Increments (progress tracking)

• 0. Cost split confirmed (2026-10-11, timed live replay). build_seconds=66.69 (CPG build is cheap), query_seconds=0.0 (no query ever executed), total 303 s (hit the deadline), 4,095 candidate questions all analysis_not_started=deadline_exhausted, selected: [], regions_scanned=0. So of the 303 s, ~67 s built the CPG and ~236 s went to enumerating/ranking/preparing 4,095 repo-wide candidate questions for a 3-file change — the budget was spent before a single query ran. The CPG build is NOT the bottleneck; the over-broad candidate set is. Change-scoping is confirmed as the right lever, and because per-candidate prep includes the line-correspondence work, fewer candidates also cuts that cost (the two fixes compound).

• 1. Located (2026-10-11). The over-enumeration is upstream of the scan, not inside it:

  • push/runner.py:345-348 — head_regions = discovery(tip.root, …) discovers regions across the whole head tree (the ~4,095), independent of the change.
  • push/runner.py:397-407 — those regions are passed wholesale to scan_repository(..., change_context=context); change_context is threaded in but never scopes the region set.
  • model/scan.py:167 and :364 — [_identity(unit, r, f) for r in regions for f in r.families] enumerates all regions × families; with order_by_evidence=True (runner.py:288/403) the scan evidence-tiers every pair before analysis — that pre-work is the ~236 s measured in increment 0, so the deadline hits at query_seconds=0.
  • Primitive already present: model/regions.py:279 computes the changed-path set from the context; compare_targeted_base (runner.py:411) is a precedent for change-targeted work.
  • Fix locus (increment 2): restrict the analyzed region set to the change's declarations + dataflow neighbourhood (filter head_regions by context.changed_paths before the scan, or scope the enumeration inside scan_repository). Keep the CPG whole-repo so taint queries can still trace sources from unchanged code into the changed regions — only the question set is change-scoped.

  Correction (2026-10-11), after a reverted first attempt — two things the naive filter got wrong:

  • The engine already reaches into unchanged code by design, and it is tested. A changed source that reaches an unchanged sink must still select the unchanged sink's question (tests/test_model_change_context.py::test_changed_dependency_reaches_unchanged_ranked_question; test_change_does_not_replace_ranker_selection pins that change context must NOT alter the ranker's selection). _changed_files feeds _evidence_pass only as contextFilter/contextPaths — which locations to itemise vs summarise — NOT to shrink the tier population. A "changed files only" scope deletes the reach-into-unchanged behaviour. Any scope must keep changed regions plus the regions they reach (the affected/relationships neighbourhood), not changed files alone.
  • The 236 s is now split (2026-10-11, saved artifacts). total=291s build=52s query=0s arbitrate=238.75s, and query_seconds_by_kind["evidence"]=238.54s — the evidence-tier pass is 99.9 % of the arbitrate phase; affected_context + _scope_work are 0.21 s. The pass tiered 1,015 pairs (tier_counts 0:1009, 1:6) at ~235 ms/pair (contended; ~120 ms uncontended) and that alone blew the budget — selected=0, deferred=1365 all deadline_exhausted. Secondary anomaly: the design assumes ~2.5 ms/pair ("17,700 in 44 s"); here it is 50–100× that, i.e. the evidence query is pathologically slow on a cold large CPG — a separate optimisation from cutting the pair count.
  • So increment 2's single target is the evidence pass (scan.py:338-359, _evidence_pass). The fork is HOW to cut it without deleting reach-into-unchanged:
    • (i) Scope + bound: order the evidence candidates change-first and bound the pass to a fraction of the budget so analysis queries still run; reached unchanged regions are tiered only while budget lasts.
    • (ii) Neighbourhood pass: tier the changed regions, read the reached regions from the context rows the pass already returns, tier those in a second small pass — exact reach-into-unchanged, more code.
    • (iii) Per-pair speedup: attack the ~235 ms/pair (warm server / batching) rather than the pair count — helps every scan but is a deeper engine change and does not by itself bound a huge repo.

  CORRECTION (2026-10-11, after implementing (i) + four live re-verifies — the cost model was wrong). Scope + bound was built and tested (change-first ordering, adaptive budget-fitted portioning, _context_pass scoped to changed files, honest evidence_pass_bounded degradation; branch engine-change-scoped-evidence-pass). It correctly cut the tiered pair count — but query_seconds stayed 0 every time. The live numbers show why:

  pairs tiered	run_batch calls	evidence s	build s
  1015	1	238	52
  512	1	219	68
  64	2	220	68
  4 (probe)	1	160	127

  Evidence time is flat regardless of pair count → the cost is per-call fixed (~150–220 s: loading the CPG into the query engine + the census the evidenceOnly batch computes), ~85 ms/pair on top. Pair-count scoping therefore cannot free budget, and portioning re-pays the fixed cost per call (so (i) can be counterproductive). Build is also large and swings 52→127 s — two engines thrashing the 7 GB host (the record-07 baseline shares it). The real levers are now (iii)-shaped, not (i): warm/persistent query engine or a cached census to kill the ~150 s per-call fixed cost, and/or a bigger engine-arm budget than 300 s; plus a clean (uncontended) measurement, because contention alone may be inflating build + fixed cost 2–3×. Scope+bound is NOT merged.

  UNCONTENDED measurement (2026-10-11, baseline paused via SIGSTOP + container kill, then resumed). Shipped engine, one evidence call over 1,015 pairs: build=48 s, evidence=243.79 s, query=0. The evidence pass is the same ~244 s uncontended as ~238 s contended → the cost is INTRINSIC, not contention; contention only inflated build (48 → 127 s) and added run-to-run noise. The model is evidence ≈ 150 s fixed (CPG load into the query engine + the census the evidenceOnly batch computes) + ~93 ms/pair (244 = 150 + 1015×0.093). Consequences:

  • ~200 s of fixed overhead (build + evidence-load) precedes any analysis, so a 300 s budget leaves only ~100 s for everything else. This is why query=0 even on a clean host.
  • Change-scoping still helps, but only by cutting the per-pair tail (~1,015×93 ms ≈ 95 s): one evidence call over ~30 changed pairs is ~150 s + 3 s instead of 244 s, which would free ~90 s — possibly enough for analysis, but marginal.
  • It must be ONE call, not portioned. The ~150 s is a first-call load, so the adaptive probe attributed it to its 4 probe pairs (per-pair≈37 s), concluded the budget fit ~0 more, and tiered only 4 — the implemented scope+bound is doubly wrong for this cost model. The correct shape: change-first candidates, count-capped, ONE evidence call, deadline=None.
  • Pre-push viability: the ~200 s fixed floor means the engine arm cannot be a fast (≤30 s) pre-push check on a repo this size without a warm/persistent session or a cached census. A larger budget (e.g. 600 s) makes the benchmark arm run but is not a realistic pre-push deadline. The lever that matters for the product is killing the ~150 s fixed cost, not scoping pairs.

• 2. Seed analysis from the change. Prioritize (or restrict first-pass to) the changed declarations plus their call/data neighborhood over repo-wide static rank, within budget.

• 3. Soundness. Keep cross-file dataflow INTO the changed function (don't scope to literal changed lines); add tests; keep existing push tests green.

• 4. Live re-test. Re-run the bedrock change: does analysis now RUN and produce a finding on install_packages (vs deferred)? Re-run metrics-plugin.

• 5. Measure the delta. Engine-arm sample on the pool (catch/false-alarm + engine-coverage rate) — needs the kube lane (blocked on the AX completion path) for scale.

Dependencies / notes

• Coverage complete_within_scope also needs the capability registry (Task 8.3) regardless of this work; the win here is findings moving from comparison_unknown/deferred to a decided novelty → advisory engine finding.
• Implement directly and verify on the LIVE instrument (a fake-client/unit pass is not evidence the live engine changed); the kube-lane and store endpoints are operator-owned infra, not assumptions to make here.

Efficiency barrier analysis (post-record-07 priority)

What the record-07 baseline actually measured (verified on the records): regex only. The default and long_deadline replay arms both hardcode model="disabled", max_model_calls=0, cost_usd=0 — no LLM is called — and the engine never completed (engine_covered=0, the ~200 s wall). So the measured catch≈2.5% is the quick pattern-rule tier alone: essentially grep-with-structure. This is the FLOOR, not the product, and it confirms the maintainer's point — pattern rules alone will never be enough, or grep would do. The product's detection lives in two tiers that did NOT run:

Tier	Mechanism	Measured cost (uncontended, mid-size repo)	Ran?	Catch
1 quick rules	regex/pattern over changed lines	~seconds	yes	2.5% (floor)
2 engine (Joern)	CPG build + taint/dataflow	build 48 s + evidence (150 s fixed + 93 ms/pair) + analysis (unmeasured)	no (walled)	unknown
3 LLM adjudication	model judgment / search-with-proof (hunter, fusion, decision engine)	model latency + $/call (unmeasured in the push path)	no (disabled)	unknown

The barrier: a releasable net needs tier 2 and/or tier 3 to run and catch within a realistic pre-push window — target ≤60–120 s (developer patience), hard ceiling 300 s. The analysis is a budget ledger per tier against that window, and the measurements each needs:

• Engine barrier (tier 2). Fixed floor build(48) + evidence_fixed(~150) ≈ 198 s precedes any dataflow answer. Measure (clean host): E1 split the ~150 s into JVM-start / graph-load / census; E2 does a warm session with the graph preloaded at build eliminate evidence_fixed on the first query (the decisive architectural test)?; E3 analysis (reachableByFlows) per-pair cost + warm reuse; E4 build cost vs repo size. Levers in priority order: warm session + graph preload → cached census → change-scope the per-pair tail.
• LLM barrier (tier 3). Unmeasured in the push path. Measure: L1 model round-trip latency per call (DeepSeek) and calls needed per push for the decision/proof stage; L2 the recall LIFT of tier 3 over tiers 1+2 on the pool — does the LLM catch what regex and dataflow miss, and at what $ and latency per push?
• Deliverable: a barrier table — for budget ∈ {60, 120, 300, 600} s × each tier combination, does it FIT and what is the MEASURED recall/false-alarm on the pool — identifying the minimal viable config for a releasable net. 600 s unblocks the benchmark arm but is not a pre-push deadline; the product target is tiers 2+3 under ~120 s.

Sequence: finish G0 (record 07) → E1/E2 first (they decide whether the warm session alone crosses the engine barrier) → E3/E4 → L1/L2. Each on a clean host (the session times out contended). The change-scoped branch (engine-change-scoped-evidence-pass, unmerged) only trims the tier-2 per-pair tail and is a late add-on, not the lever.

E1/E2 RESULTS (measured 2026-10-12, CLEAN host, bedrock-agentcore, 3-file change, 300 s budget, head side)

Four clean-host replays settle the engine barrier and correct the earlier "~200 s graph-load wall", which was conflated with host contention from the running baseline replay:

Run	build	evidence (taint batch)	dominance	query_s	selected	deferred
contended (prior)	48–127	243.8	—	0	0	1365
disposable (shipped, clean)	27.9	225.1	34.8	34.8	356	1009
warm session SESSION=1 (clean)	32.9	228.6	25.9	25.9	356	1009
session + graph preload (clean)	30.4	223.2	32.5	32.5	356	1009

Findings (each traced to a measured cause, not assumed):

1. The engine arm was walled by CONTENTION, not an intrinsic floor. The prior query=0 / selected=0 / all 1365 deferred was measured while the slice-1 baseline replay contended for the 7 GB host. On a clean host the shipped (disposable) engine already runs dataflow: query_seconds 0 → ~35 s, selected 0 → 356 regions, dominance flow queries complete. This is the first time the engine arm produced analysis on this change.
2. The evidence/taint batch (~225 s) is INVARIANT to session and to graph preload (225.1 / 228.6 / 223.2 across the three clean runs). Warm session and preload-at-build do not reduce it. So the dominant cost is intrinsic to the taint batch, not graph I/O.
3. Graph-load is cheap — it is NOT the wall. The dominance query is a full cold query including importCpg, and it costs only ~35 s. So importCpg is tens of seconds, not ~150 s. This corrects the earlier note that attributed the ~150 s fixed to "first query JVM-start + graph-load + census." The ~160 s fixed lives inside taint.sc's own per-batch flow work (seed/sink memo fill over the distinct (family, file) combinations it walks), paid lazily as the first pairs process — independent of the raw pair count.
4. The warm session is not the lever. It starts fine on a clean host (the contended session_startup_timeout was contention-only), but gives ~no benefit here: subsequent queries (dominance) are already cheap disposable, and the evidence pass is a single batch call, so there is nothing for the session to amortise.
5. The barrier, restated: build(~30) + evidence(~225) ≈ 255 s of a 300 s budget, so 1009/1365 regions defer as deadline_exhausted; only 356 are analysed. The lever is reducing the taint batch's work — change-scope the pair/family set so the batch fits budget — NOT session, preload, or a bigger JVM. The parked branch (engine-change-scoped-evidence-pass) is therefore relevant after all, on a clean host, provided it scopes the family/file set taint.sc walks (not merely the pair list); its adaptive portioning still needs replacing with a fixed cap (per-call-fixed cost, not per-pair).
6. Side note: the base-side CPG build failed (cpg_build_failed, 0.9 s) in the preload run — a separate intermittent base-revision build issue; the head side built and analysed normally. Track separately.

What E1/E2 did NOT answer (the real G2 question): on a clean host the engine selects 356 regions — does it CATCH vulns regex misses? That needs an engine-on unseen pilot (a handful of pool repos replayed with the engine arm enabled on a clean host) scored against record 07's regex-only floor (catch 3/92). That is the decisive next experiment, ahead of E3/E4/L1/L2.