Rethinking Complexity Metrics for LLM-Integrated Applications: Beyond Source Code
LLM-integrated applications blend natural language prompts with program code, and much of their runtime behavior originates in the prompt layer rather than in the code itself. Existing complexity metrics, however, operate solely at the code level and therefore overlook this behavioral logic entirely. We present HECATE, the first tool designed to assess complexity in both the prompt and code layers of such applications. Central to HECATE is Prompt-as-Specification, a Hoare-logic-inspired formalism that interprets every prompt as a specification of intended behavior. Grounded in 25 complexity dimensions identified across published taxonomies, the tool generates 52 candidate metrics. We asse...
| Authors | Zihao Xu, Yuekang Li, Gelei Deng et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.AI |
| Published | 2 July 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 2 July 2026 |
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