Carlos Eduardo Duarte

Carlos Eduardo Duarte, Neil B. Harrison, Filipe Figueiredo Correia et al.

Architectural patterns are frequently found in various software artifacts. The wide variety of patterns and their implementations makes detection challenging with current tools, especially since they often only support detecting patterns in artifacts written in a single language. Large Language Models (LLMs), trained on a diverse range of software artifacts and knowledge, might overcome the limitations of existing approaches. However, their true effectiveness and the factors influencing their performance have not yet been thoroughly examined. To better understand this, we developed MicroPAD. This tool utilizes GPT 5 nano to identify architectural patterns in software artifacts written in any language, based on natural-language pattern descriptions. We used MicroPAD to evaluate an LLM's ability to detect instances of architectural patterns, particularly infrastructure-related microservice patterns. To accomplish this, we selected a set of GitHub repositories and contacted their top contributors to create a new, human-annotated dataset of 190 repositories containing microservice architectural patterns. The results show that MicroPAD was capable of detecting pattern instances across multiple languages and artifact types. The detection performance varied across patterns (F1 scores ranging from 0.09 to 0.70), specifically in relation to their prevalence and the distinctiveness of the artifacts through which they manifest. We also found that patterns associated with recognizable, dominant artifacts were detected more reliably. Whether these findings generalize to other LLMs and tools is a promising direction for future research.

Carlos Eduardo Duarte

Documenting software architecture is essential to preserve architecture knowledge, even though it is frequently costly. Architecture pattern instances, including microservice pattern instances, provide important structural software information. Practitioners should document this information to prevent knowledge vaporization. However, architecture patterns may not be detectable by analyzing source code artifacts, requiring the analysis of other types of artifacts. Moreover, many existing pattern detection instance approaches are complex to extend. This article presents our ongoing PhD research, early experiments, and a prototype for a tool we call MicroPAD for automating the detection of microservice pattern instances. The prototype uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to analyze Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) artifacts to aid detection, aiming to keep costs low and maximize the scope of detectable patterns. Early experiments ran the prototype thrice in 22 GitHub projects. We verified that 83\% of the patterns that the prototype identified were in the project. The costs of detecting the pattern instances were minimal. These results indicate that the approach is likely viable and, by lowering the entry barrier to automating pattern instance detection, could help democratize developer access to this category of architecture knowledge. Finally, we present our overall research methodology, planned future work, and an overview of MicroPAD's potential industrial impact.