CLI Commands

Overview

similarity-go is a high-performance CLI tool that uses multi-factor AST analysis to detect code similarity in Go projects. The main command analyzes files and directories with configurable options.

Global Flags

These flags are available for all commands:

Flag	Short	Description	Default
--help	-h	Show help for command
--version	-v	Show version information
--config	-c	Path to configuration file	.similarity-go.yaml
--verbose		Enable verbose output	false
--quiet	-q	Suppress non-essential output	false

Main Command

Analyze Go code for similarities.

./bin/similarity-go [flags] [paths...]

Arguments

• paths...: One or more paths to analyze (files or directories)

Flags

Flag	Type	Description	Default
--threshold, -t	float	Similarity threshold (0.0-1.0)	0.8
--format, -f	string	Output format (json, yaml)	text
--workers, -w	int	Number of parallel workers	CPU cores
--cache	bool	Enable caching for improved performance	false
--verbose, -v	bool	Enable verbose logging	false

Examples

# Basic analysis of current directory
./bin/similarity-go ./

# Analyze specific directories with custom threshold
./bin/similarity-go --threshold 0.9 ./cmd ./internal

# Export results to JSON
./bin/similarity-go --format json ./ > results.json

# Use custom number of workers with verbose output
./bin/similarity-go --workers 4 --verbose ./src

# Enable caching for large projects
./bin/similarity-go --cache --threshold 0.85 ./

Algorithm Details

The similarity detection uses multi-factor analysis:

• AST Tree Edit Distance: Measures structural differences between code
• Token Sequence Analysis: Compares token patterns and sequences
• Structural Signatures: Creates fingerprints of code structure
• Weighted Scoring: Combines multiple metrics for accurate similarity scoring

Development Requirements

For building from source:

• Go 1.24.5+
• golangci-lint (for development)

Version Information

Display version information:

./bin/similarity-go --version

Exit Codes

similarity-go uses standard exit codes:

Code	Meaning
0	Success - No high similarities found
1	High similarities detected
2	Error in execution

Output Formats

Default (Human-readable)

Shows similarity results with highlighted matches and similarity scores.

JSON Format

Structured output suitable for integration with other tools:

./bin/similarity-go --format json ./src

YAML Format

YAML structured output:

./bin/similarity-go --format yaml ./src