km hotspots

Finds hotspots: files that change frequently AND have high complexity. Based on Adam Thornhill’s method (“Your Code as a Crime Scene”).

km hotspots [path]

Formula

Score = Commits × Complexity

Files with high scores concentrate risk — they are both change-prone and complex, making them the highest-value refactoring targets.

By default, complexity is measured by total indentation (sum of logical indentation levels across all code lines), following Thornhill’s original method from “Your Code as a Crime Scene”. Use --complexity cycom for cyclomatic complexity instead.

Requires a git repository. Merge commits are excluded from the count.

Options:

Flag	Description
--format {table,json,short,terse}	Output format (default: table)
--include-tests	Include test files in analysis (excluded by default)
--top N	Show only the top N files (default: 20)
--sort-by METRIC	Sort by score, commits, or complexity (default: score)
--since DURATION	Only consider commits since this time (e.g. 30d, 6m, 1y)
--complexity METRIC	indent (default, Thornhill) or cycom (cyclomatic)

Duration units: d (days), m (months, approx. 30 days), y (years, approx. 365 days).

Example output (default — indentation complexity):

Hotspots (Commits × Total Indent Complexity)
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 File                    Language Commits Total Indent      Score
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 src/main.rs                 Rust      18        613      11034
 src/loc/counter.rs          Rust       7       1490      10430
 src/dups/detector.rs        Rust       7       1288       9016
 src/dups/mod.rs             Rust       9        603       5427
 src/report/mod.rs           Rust       4        998       3992
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Score = Commits × Total Indentation (Thornhill method).
High-score files are change-prone and complex — prime refactoring targets.

Example output (--complexity cycom):

Hotspots (Commits × Cyclomatic Complexity)
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 File                     Language Commits Cyclomatic      Score
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 src/loc/counter.rs           Rust       7        115        805
 src/dups/mod.rs              Rust       9         44        396
 src/main.rs                  Rust      18         21        378
 src/cycom/analyzer.rs        Rust       4         92        368
 src/dups/detector.rs         Rust       7         46        322
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Score = Commits × Cyclomatic Complexity.
High-score files are change-prone and complex — prime refactoring targets.