Atlas enables Assembly developers to migrate an entire codebase off a deprecated function or module onto its replacement without missing a caller, integrating directly with your existing toolchain like `make check`, `make (nasm toolchain)`, and `asmfmt` to ensure correctness and consistency throughout the process.
How to find all calls to a deprecated Assembly function with Atlas
Atlas identifies every callsite of a deprecated Assembly function using its `lsp` tool's `findReferences` operation, cross-referencing with `grep` for dynamic usages. This ensures a complete enumeration, crucial for x86-64 and ARM64 codebases in 2026, preventing any missed callers.
Migrating a deprecated API in Assembly requires a comprehensive understanding of all its call sites. Atlas achieves this by leveraging its `lsp` tool, which indexes code by AST declarations using tree-sitter. For Assembly, this means Atlas can accurately locate references to labels, routines, and other declared symbols within your `.asm` or `.S` source files, respecting calling conventions like System V or AAPCS64. To catch any dynamic or string-based usages that might elude static analysis, Atlas then cross-checks the `lsp` results with its `grep` tool. This hybrid semantic and keyword retrieval, fused by reciprocal rank fusion, guarantees that every single callsite, whether explicit or implicit, is identified across your entire Assembly codebase, ensuring no caller is overlooked during the migration process.
How to track deprecated API migration progress in Assembly
To manage the migration of a deprecated Assembly API across potentially hundreds of callsites, Atlas creates one `todowrite` entry per callsite. This ensures that partial progress is visible and no `.asm` or `.S` file is silently skipped, providing clear visibility into the 2026 migration effort.
The workflow for migrating a deprecated API is one that punishes half-measures. Once all callsites of the deprecated Assembly function are enumerated, Atlas uses its `todowrite` tool to create a distinct entry for each one. This transforms the abstract task of 'migration' into a concrete, trackable list of work items. Each `todowrite` entry corresponds to a specific callsite in a specific Assembly file, allowing you to see partial progress as you work through the migration. This granular tracking prevents any callsite from being silently skipped or forgotten, which is especially critical in large Assembly projects where missing even a single caller could lead to runtime errors or unexpected behavior. The `todowrite` entries provide a clear roadmap, ensuring every piece of the migration puzzle is accounted for.
Safely applying changes to Assembly code with Atlas
Atlas applies changes to Assembly files using `apply_patch`, which seeks the hunk's context and `old_lines` to prevent misapplication to drifted code. After each file edit, Atlas runs `make check` to validate changes, ensuring the integrity of x86-64 or ARM64 routines in 2026.
When it's time to modify the Assembly code, Atlas employs its `apply_patch` tool. This tool is designed for safety: it seeks the hunk's context and `old_lines` within the target file. If the expected lines are not found, `apply_patch` throws a 'Failed to find expected lines' error rather than guessing or misapplying the patch to a drifted file. This prevents unintended modifications to your critical x86-64 or ARM64 Assembly routines. After each file is modified, Atlas immediately runs the affected tests using `atlas bash "make check"`. This ensures that the changes haven't introduced regressions. Only once the tests pass is the `todowrite` entry for that callsite marked as complete. Furthermore, Atlas can keep alignment and column style consistent by running `asmfmt` on the touched files, ensuring your Assembly code remains clean and readable.
Reviewing and committing Assembly API migrations with Atlas
Atlas provides a unified diff for every file edit, surfacing it for approval before writing any changes to your `.asm` or `.S` files. This allows developers in 2026 to meticulously review each instruction change, ensuring register allocation and calling conventions remain correct before staging and committing.
Transparency and control are paramount when modifying Assembly code. Atlas ensures this by computing a unified diff for every file edit it proposes. This diff is surfaced for your approval before any changes are actually written to your `.asm` or `.S` files. This critical step allows you to inspect every single instruction change, verify register allocation, confirm calling convention adherence (System V or AAPCS64), and ensure the overall correctness of the modified Assembly. Atlas also reads git branches, status, and diffs, and can stage and create commits on your behalf. Once you approve the changes, Atlas can stage the modified files and create a commit, integrating direct into your existing version control workflow. This granular review process, combined with Atlas's ability to snapshot file changes as git patches, provides a robust safety net for complex Assembly migrations.
How to ensure complete deprecation of an Assembly API
After migrating all identified callsites, Atlas performs a final `grep` for the deprecated symbol across your entire Assembly codebase to confirm zero remaining hits. This crucial step, often overlooked, guarantees a 100% complete deprecation in 2026 before the old implementation is safely deleted.
The final stage of migrating a deprecated Assembly API is verification. Once all `todowrite` entries are marked complete and all individual callsite migrations have passed their respective `make check` validations, Atlas performs a comprehensive final check. It uses its `grep` tool to search the entire codebase for any remaining instances of the deprecated symbol. The goal is to confirm zero hits, providing absolute certainty that the deprecated API has been fully removed from all `.asm` or `.S` files. Only after this final verification step, confirming a 100% complete deprecation, should the old implementation of the deprecated function or module be safely deleted. This meticulous approach ensures a clean and thorough migration, leaving no trace of the old API.
Step by step
- 01Enumerate every callsite of the deprecated Assembly symbol using `atlas lsp findReferences <deprecated_symbol>` and cross-check with `atlas grep <deprecated_symbol>` for dynamic usages in your `.asm` or `.S` files.
- 02Create one `todowrite` entry per identified Assembly callsite using `atlas todowrite <file_path>:<line_number>` to track partial progress.
- 03Migrate each Assembly callsite by applying a context-anchored patch with `atlas apply_patch <patch_content>`, ensuring it fails rather than misapplying to a drifted file.
- 04After each Assembly file modification, run affected tests with `atlas bash "make check"` and format the file with `atlas bash "asmfmt <file_path>"`, marking the todo completed only upon success.
- 05Review the unified diff for each Assembly file edit, approve changes, and then stage and commit them using `atlas git stage <file_path>` and `atlas git commit -m "Migrate <symbol> in Assembly"`.
- 06Perform a final verification by running `atlas grep <deprecated_symbol>` across your entire Assembly codebase to confirm zero remaining hits.
- 07Delete the old Assembly implementation of the deprecated function or module using `atlas bash "rm <old_implementation_file_path>"`.
Frequently asked questions
- How does Atlas handle different Assembly architectures like x86-64 and ARM64?
- Atlas operates on x86-64 and ARM64 assembly, understanding register allocation, calling conventions, and ABIs as the contract. It reads your sections and labels, allowing it to explain hot loops and annotate register usage before modifying instructions in your `.asm` or `.S` files.
- Can Atlas ensure my Assembly code adheres to `asmfmt` standards during migration?
- Yes, Atlas integrates with `asmfmt`. After applying changes to an Assembly file, Atlas can automatically run `asmfmt` on the touched files using `atlas bash "asmfmt <file_path>"`, ensuring alignment and column style consistency behind a permission prompt.
- How does Atlas prevent accidental changes to my Assembly codebase?
- Atlas employs multiple safety mechanisms. Every Atlas tool call is permission-gated, it drafts a plan in a read-only agent for approval, computes a unified diff for every edit, and `apply_patch` fails rather than misapplying to a drifted file, protecting your Assembly code.
- What if my Assembly project uses `nasm` instead of GNU assembler?
- Atlas is designed to assemble with either `nasm` or the GNU assembler. It can run your test harness under `make check` regardless of your chosen assembler, all behind a permission prompt, integrating direct with your `Makefile`.
- How does Atlas track all callers, including dynamic ones, in Assembly?
- Atlas combines `lsp`'s `findReferences` for AST-declared symbols (labels, routines) with `grep` for dynamic or string-based usages. This hybrid approach ensures a complete enumeration of all call sites in your `.asm` or `.S` files, preventing any missed callers.
- Can I review the Assembly changes before Atlas writes them to disk?
- Absolutely. Atlas computes a unified diff for every file edit and surfaces it for your approval before writing. This allows you to inspect every instruction change and ensure correctness, including register usage and calling conventions, before committing to your Assembly codebase.
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