behaviorprint

Behavioral Fingerprinting Engine for Code Changes

Catch the regressions your tests don't cover — before they hit production 30-90 days later.

The Problem

AI-assisted code changes are fast and pass existing tests. But tests only cover known behaviors. When an AI refactors processPayment(), it might subtly change how null currency codes are handled. Your tests pass. Three months later, 0.3% of payments start failing.

behaviorprint captures the complete behavioral signature of your functions — every edge case, every boundary value, every type coercion quirk — and detects when any of it changes.

How It Works

Before Change                    After Change
     │                                │
     ▼                                ▼
┌──────────────┐              ┌──────────────┐
│ Extract AST  │              │ Extract AST  │
│ functions    │              │ functions    │
└──────┬───────┘              └──────┬───────┘
       ▼                             ▼
┌──────────────┐              ┌──────────────┐
│ Generate     │              │ Generate     │
│ input classes│              │ input classes│
│ (boundaries) │              │ (boundaries) │
└──────┬───────┘              └──────┬───────┘
       ▼                             ▼
┌──────────────┐              ┌──────────────┐
│ Probe each   │              │ Probe each   │
│ function     │              │ function     │
│ (sandboxed)  │              │ (sandboxed)  │
└──────┬───────┘              └──────┬───────┘
       │                             │
       └──────────┬──────────────────┘
                  ▼
          ┌──────────────┐
          │   Compare    │
          │ fingerprints │
          └──────┬───────┘
                 ▼
          ┌──────────────┐
          │  Divergence  │
          │   Report     │
          └──────────────┘

Core Algorithms

1. Function Extraction — AST-based (tree-sitter) identification of exported/public functions with arity detection
2. Input Class Generation — Automatic boundary values: 0, -1, MAX_SAFE_INTEGER, null, undefined, NaN, Infinity, empty string, empty array, {}, and combinations
3. Behavioral Probing — Sandboxed execution capturing return values, thrown exceptions, and side effects (console output)
4. Fingerprint Comparison — Hash-based comparison of (input_class → output_signature) maps
5. Severity Classification — return→throw = critical, null/undefined boundary = high, type changes = medium
6. Coverage Gap Detection — Information-theoretic entropy metric identifying undertested behavioral surfaces

Installation

npm install @phoenixaihub/behaviorprint

CLI Usage

Capture fingerprints

# Capture behavioral fingerprints of all exported functions
behaviorprint capture ./src --output before.json

# Make your changes...

# Capture again
behaviorprint capture ./src --output after.json

Compare fingerprints

behaviorprint compare before.json after.json --output report.json

Example Output

{
  "functions_analyzed": 12,
  "identical": 9,
  "divergent": 3,
  "divergences": [
    {
      "function": "processPayment",
      "file": "src/payments.js",
      "input": [0, null],
      "before": { "returns": { "success": false, "error": "invalid" } },
      "after": { "throws": "TypeError: Cannot read property 'code' of null" },
      "severity": "critical",
      "production_frequency": "estimated 0.3% of calls"
    }
  ]
}

Programmatic API

import { captureFunction, compareFingerprints } from '@phoenixaihub/behaviorprint';

// Capture a single function
const before = captureFunction(oldImplementation, 'processPayment');
const after = captureFunction(newImplementation, 'processPayment');

// Compare
const report = compareFingerprints([before], [after]);
console.log(`${report.divergent} behavioral divergences found`);

for (const d of report.divergences) {
  console.log(`${d.severity}: ${d.function} — input: ${JSON.stringify(d.input)}`);
}

Full Directory Capture

import { capture, compareFingerprints } from '@phoenixaihub/behaviorprint';

const before = capture('./src-v1');
const after = capture('./src-v2');
const report = compareFingerprints(before.fingerprints, after.fingerprints);

Severity Levels

Severity	Meaning	Example
critical	Function now throws where it previously returned	null input causes crash
high	Null/undefined boundary behavior changed	Silent null → error
medium	Return type changed	number → string
low	Value changed but type preserved	42 → 43

CI Integration

# .github/workflows/behaviorprint.yml
- name: Capture baseline
  run: behaviorprint capture ./src --output baseline.json

- name: Capture current
  run: behaviorprint capture ./src --output current.json

- name: Compare
  run: |
    behaviorprint compare baseline.json current.json --output report.json
    cat report.json | jq '.divergent' | grep -q '^0$' || exit 1

License

MIT