What each number in CodeLoupe means, how it is calculated, and how to read it. Examples use the sample repository ledgerline, analyzed over 12 months.
You need IntelliJ IDEA or another JetBrains IDE, version 2025.2 or newer, and a project in a Git repository.
The hotspot score combines how often a file changes with how complex it is. A high score means the file is changed often and is complex, so investigate it first.
Both factors are normalized to 0–1 across the analyzed files. CodeLoupe also shows a percentile rank: top 2% means the file is among the highest-scoring 2% of files.
The number of commits that touched the file within the time window, excluding mass commits.
Renames are followed, so a file keeps its history after a move. Commits that touch more files than the mass-commit threshold (formatting sweeps, dependency bumps) are left out.
Lines added plus lines removed across all revisions in the window. It measures how much the file was rewritten, not how big it is.
Rewriting the same 30 lines three times adds 180 to churn, even though the file ends up the same size.
Measured from indentation. Deeper nesting scores higher. Because it only looks at leading whitespace, it works for any language without a parser.
Compare complexity between files in the same project. The absolute number depends on code style, so it is less useful across projects.
The number of distinct committers who changed the file within the time window. Many authors on a hotspot can point to coordination cost; one author can point to a knowledge silo — see Main author.
The author with the most revisions on the file, and their share of those revisions. Above 80%, the file is flagged as a knowledge silo.
In the map's author mode, files are colored with the Tableau10 palette by main author, and silos get a dashed outline.
Two files are temporally coupled when they keep changing in the same commits. When nothing in the code links them, this reveals a hidden dependency.
A pair needs at least 5 shared commits to be listed.
Find them under Settings → Tools → CodeLoupe. Changing a setting takes effect on the next refresh.
**/generated/** or *.lock..git-blame-ignore-revs are skipped.