Track Trends

Generate historical analysis of repository health metrics over time to identify improvement or degradation patterns.

Prerequisites

Omen CLI must be installed and available in PATH.

When to Use

•Quarterly engineering health reports
•Release retrospectives
•Tracking debt paydown initiatives
•Justifying refactoring investments with data
•Identifying gradual quality degradation

Workflow

Step 1: Run Trend Analysis

Use the Omen CLI to analyze historical scores:

bash

# Last 3 months, weekly sampling (default)
omen score trend --since 3m

# Last 6 months for quarterly report
omen score trend --since 6m --period monthly

# Full year for annual review
omen score trend --since 1y --period monthly

Parameters:

•--since: How far back to analyze (3m, 6m, 1y, 2y, 30d, 4w, all). Defaults to all (full history).
•--period: Sampling frequency (daily, weekly, monthly)

Step 2: Interpret Results

The output includes:

Field	Meaning
Score	Composite health score (0-100)
Slope	Points gained/lost per period
R-squared	How consistent the trend is (0-1)
Correlation	Direction and strength (-1 to 1)

Trend interpretation:

•Positive slope = improving health
•Negative slope = degrading health
•High R-squared (>0.7) = consistent trend
•Low R-squared (<0.3) = volatile/no clear trend

Step 3: Analyze Component Trends

Each component has its own trend statistics:

Component	What It Measures
Complexity	Function complexity violations
Duplication	Code clone ratio
SATD	Self-admitted technical debt
TDG	Technical Debt Gradient
Coupling	Cyclic dependencies, instability
Smells	Architectural issues
Cohesion	Class cohesion (LCOM)

Look for diverging trends - overall score improving but one component degrading.

Output Format

Generate a trend report:

markdown

# Repository Health Trend Report
Period: [Start Date] to [End Date]

## Executive Summary

| Metric | Start | End | Change | Trend |
|--------|-------|-----|--------|-------|
| Overall Score | 72 | 85 | +13 | Improving |
| Complexity | 68 | 91 | +23 | Strong improvement |
| Duplication | 75 | 66 | -9 | Degrading |
| SATD | 80 | 85 | +5 | Stable improvement |
| TDG | 82 | 88 | +6 | Improving |
| Coupling | 70 | 75 | +5 | Stable |
| Smells | 100 | 100 | 0 | Excellent |
| Cohesion | 95 | 100 | +5 | Excellent |

## Trend Analysis

**Overall trajectory:** Score improving at +2.1 points/month (R-squared: 0.89)

**Key observations:**
1. Complexity improved significantly after refactoring sprint in [month]
2. Duplication trending down - clone detection shows new patterns emerging
3. Technical debt (SATD) being addressed consistently

## Component Deep Dive

### Complexity (Strong Improvement)
- Started: 68 (15 functions over threshold)
- Current: 91 (3 functions over threshold)
- Key changes: Refactored payment processor, split auth handler

### Duplication (Concerning)
- Started: 75 (4.2% duplication)
- Current: 66 (6.1% duplication)
- Action needed: New handler patterns being copy-pasted

## Recommendations

### Immediate Actions
1. Address duplication in `handlers/` directory
2. Review new code for copy-paste patterns

### Next Quarter Goals
1. Maintain complexity below 5 violations
2. Reduce duplication back to <5%
3. Continue SATD remediation pace

## Historical Data Points

| Date | Commit | Score | Cx | Dup | SATD | TDG | Coup | Smell | Coh |
|------|--------|-------|-----|-----|------|-----|------|-------|-----|
| 2024-01 | abc123 | 72 | 68 | 75 | 80 | 82 | 70 | 100 | 95 |
| 2024-02 | def456 | 76 | 75 | 72 | 82 | 84 | 72 | 100 | 98 |
| 2024-03 | ghi789 | 85 | 91 | 66 | 85 | 88 | 75 | 100 | 100 |

CI/CD Integration

Add trend checks to release pipelines:

bash

# Fail if score dropped more than 5 points in last month
omen -f json score trend --since 1m | \
  jq -e '.total_change >= -5'

# Generate trend report for release notes
omen -f markdown score trend --since 3m > TREND_REPORT.md

Interpreting Patterns

Healthy Repository

•Stable or improving score over time
•No component consistently degrading
•Occasional dips followed by recovery

Technical Debt Accumulation

•Gradual score decline (negative slope)
•Multiple components trending down
•SATD count increasing

Successful Refactoring Initiative

•Score jump at specific point in time
•Sustained improvement after intervention
•TDG and complexity improving together

Feature Rush Pattern

•Score drops during crunch periods
•Duplication spikes (copy-paste coding)
•Recovery during stabilization sprints