Axiom Refract vs. Static Analysis
Static analysis finds bugs. Architecture governance finds structural risk.
Static analysis tools like SonarQube, Semgrep, and ESLint examine code for syntactic and semantic issues — bugs, vulnerabilities, code smells, and style violations. Architecture governance examines how the codebase is structured, where risk concentrates, and what breaks when something changes.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Axiom Refract | Axiom Refract vs. Static Analysis |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture Governance | ✓ | — |
| SPOF Detection | ✓ | — |
| Blast Radius Analysis | ✓ | — |
| Dead Code Detection | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dependency Mapping | ✓ | — |
| Compliance Mapping | ✓ | — |
| MCP/AI Agent Integration | ✓ | — |
| Multi-Language (145+) | ✓ | — |
| C4 Diagram Generation | ✓ | — |
| Supply Chain Audit | ✓ | — |
Where This Approach Falls Short
- Static analysis operates at the line and function level — it cannot see system-wide structural patterns
- No dependency graph extraction, centrality scoring, or cross-service architecture mapping
- Bug-finding and architecture governance are fundamentally different disciplines
What Axiom Refract Does Differently
Different Altitude
Static analysis looks at lines of code. Architecture governance looks at the system. Both are necessary; neither replaces the other.
Structural Risk
Axiom calculates which files, if changed, would cascade failures through the dependency graph. Static analysis identifies issues in isolated files.
Governed Record
Axiom produces a persistent architectural record. Static analysis produces a list of findings that must be resolved individually.
Who Should Consider Axiom Refract
Teams that already run static analysis and need to add system-level architectural governance to their quality pipeline.
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