OpenRewrite continues to serve us well as a tool for large-scale refactorings that follow a set of rules such as moving to a new API version of a widely used library or applying updates to many services that were created from the same template. Support for languages beyond Java, notably JavaScript, has been introduced. With short LTS release cycles in frameworks like Angular, keeping projects updated to newer versions has become increasingly important. OpenRewrite supports this process effectively. Using an AI coding assistant is an alternative, but for rule-based changes, it’s usually slower, more expensive and less reliable. We like that OpenRewrite comes bundled with a catalog of recipes (rules), which describe the changes to be made. The refactoring engine, bundled recipes and build tool plugins are open-source software, which makes it easier for teams to reach for OpenRewrite when they need it.
We've seen several use cases for code intelligence tools: moving to a new API version of a widely used library, understanding the impact of a just discovered vulnerability in such a library across an enterprise or applying updates to many services that were created from the same template. Sourcegraph is still a popular tool in this space, and OpenRewrite is another tool we want to highlight. While our teams have mostly used it in Java for narrow problems, like updating services created through a starter kit, it continues to broaden its coverage of languages and use cases. We like that it comes bundled with a catalog of recipes, which describe the changes to be made, for example for migrating commonly used frameworks across versions. The refactoring engine, bundled recipes and build tool plugins are open-source software, which makes it easier for teams to reach for OpenRewrite just when they need it. It remains to be seen how the maturing space of code intelligence tools, which are all based on parsing the source code into an abstract syntax tree (AST), will be impacted by the rapid developments in the space of LLMs.
