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Quick Start Guide

Now that SpiceCode is installed on your system, you are ready to take your first steps into analyzing code, much like a Fremen taking their initial strides across the vast desert sands under the twin moons of Arrakis. This quick start guide will walk you through the fundamental commands and demonstrate a basic analysis workflow, allowing you to quickly experience the core capabilities of SpiceCode.

Verifying Your Setup​

Before diving into analysis, it's always a good practice to ensure the tool is responding correctly. As covered in the installation guide, you can confirm SpiceCode is operational by checking its version:

spice version

This command should return the installed version number. Additionally, SpiceCode includes a simple greeting command, a ritualistic acknowledgment like a Fremen salute, which can also serve as a basic check:

spice hello

Executing this should display a welcoming message, confirming the CLI is responsive.

Performing Your First Analysis​

The primary function of SpiceCode is code analysis. Let's perform a basic analysis on a sample code file. If you don't have a readily available file in one of the supported languages (Python, JavaScript, Ruby, Go), you can quickly create one. For instance, create a simple Python file named example.py with the following content:

# This is a simple Python script
def greet(name):
    """This function greets the user."""
    message = f"Hello, {name}! Welcome to SpiceCode."
    print(message)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    # Get user input
    user_name = input("Enter your name: ") # Inline comment
    greet(user_name)

Now, navigate your terminal to the directory containing example.py and run the basic analysis command:

spice analyze example.py

Upon executing this command, SpiceCode will parse the example.py file using its native Python lexer and parser. It will then present you with an interactive menu, listing the various analysis metrics available for this file type. This menu allows you to select specific analyses you are interested in, offering a targeted approach to understanding your code.

Running All Analyses​

If you prefer to run all available analyses for a file without the interactive menu, you can use the --all flag. This is akin to a Fremen performing a comprehensive scan of their surroundings.

spice analyze example.py --all

This command will execute every applicable analyzer on example.py and output the results directly to your terminal. The output will typically include metrics such as line counts (total, code, comments), function complexity, comment ratio, indentation analysis, and more, depending on the language and the specific analyzers implemented.

Exporting Analysis Results​

Often, you'll want to save the analysis results for later review, documentation, or integration into other processes. SpiceCode provides the export command for this purpose, allowing you to preserve the valuable insights gathered, much like Fremen carefully store water.

To export the full analysis results of example.py to a Markdown file named analysis_report.md, you would run:

spice export example.py --format markdown --output analysis_report.md

This command performs all analyses (similar to analyze --all) and then writes the formatted results to the specified output file. Besides Markdown (markdown), you can export results to JSON (json), CSV (csv), and HTML (html) formats by changing the --format argument accordingly. For example, to get a JSON output:

spice export example.py --format json --output analysis_results.json

This JSON output is particularly useful for programmatic consumption of the analysis data.

Exploring Further​

This quick start guide has introduced you to the fundamental operations of SpiceCode: verifying installation, running basic and comprehensive analyses, and exporting the results. You have now taken your first successful steps into the world of SpiceCode analysis.

The subsequent sections of this documentation delve deeper into the various commands, options, specific analyzers, supported languages, and the underlying architecture of the tool. Continue your exploration to fully harness the power of SpiceCode, mastering its capabilities just as Paul Atreides learned to master the ways of the desert and the power of the spice.