The jPipe environment supports the definition of justification to support software maintenance activities. The name comes from "justified pipelines", as the key idea is to design an environment supporting the justification of CI/CD pipelines by design.
- Principal Investigator:
- Sébastien Mosser, McSCert, McMaster University.
- Active Contributors:
- Kalvin Thuan-Phong Khuu, McSCert, McMaster University. PhD Student.
- Contributors:
- Nirmal Chaudhari, McSCert, McMaster University. Undergraduate Research Assistant.
- Aaron Loh, McSCert, McMaster University. Undergraduate Research Assistant.
- Deesha Patel, McSCert, McMaster University. Master Student.
- Corinne Pulgar, École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS). Master Student.
jpipe-lang: ANTLR4 grammar and generated lexer/parserjpipe-model: domain model (justification elements, symbol table)jpipe-operators: composition operator extension point and built-in operatorsjpipe-compiler: compiler pipeline (parsing, model building, validation, export)jpipe-cli: command-line interface and fat JAR entry pointdocs: technical documentation and architecture decision recordsbin: launcher script templates (POSIXshand PowerShell) used by the packaging channelsscripts: maintainer tooling (release.sh)debian: Debian source packaging metadata for the Ubuntu PPA
| Tool | Version | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| JDK | 25 | Compilation and runtime |
| Maven | 3.x | Build tool |
| adr-tools | latest | Browsing and creating architecture decision records |
| Tool | Version | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| MkDocs Material | latest | Previewing the documentation site locally (mkdocs serve) |
mvn packageThe fat JAR is produced in jpipe-cli/target/.
Work is integrated on dev; main is release-only, and every commit on it is a
published version (ADR-0024). Branch from
dev and open a pull request for anything with reviewable content. Low-risk
changes — version bumps, changelog close-out, CI configuration, a small fix
carried by its tests — may be pushed straight to dev once mvn verify is green
locally. Only main requires a pull request.
A release is prepared on dev, merged into main through a pull request, and
started by pushing a vX.Y.Z tag on main. The tag triggers the pipeline, which
publishes the GitHub Release and updates Homebrew, Scoop and the Ubuntu PPA.
scripts/release.sh prepare X.Y.Z # on dev: set the version, close the changelog
# then push, and open the dev → main PR
scripts/release.sh preflight X.Y.Z # on main, after the merge: re-run the
# pipeline's checks before the tag exists
git tag vX.Y.Z && git push origin vX.Y.Z
git switch dev && git merge origin/main # after the release
scripts/release.sh post-release <next>-SNAPSHOT # e.g. 2.4.1-SNAPSHOTRead docs/releasing.md before cutting a release — it is
the full checklist, including the dependency review, the Ubuntu series review and
the Windows smoke test that the ADRs require. The pipeline's mechanics and the
repository secrets it needs are documented in
ADR-0020.
Formatting is enforced by Spotless (Google Java Format) and Checkstyle. To auto-format before committing:
mvn spotless:applyThe fat JAR build (jpipe-cli) merges many dependencies and would normally emit overlap warnings from the Maven Shade plugin. These are suppressed by default via .mvn/jvm.config. To re-enable them for a single run:
mvn package -Dorg.slf4j.simpleLogger.log.org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.DefaultShader=warnReleased versions are published to one package manager per platform (ADR-0025):
# macOS
brew tap jpipe-mcscert/mcscert && brew install jpipe
# Ubuntu
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mcscert/ppa
sudo apt update && sudo apt install jpipe# Windows
scoop bucket add mcscert https://github.com/jpipe-mcscert/scoop-mcscert
scoop install mcscert/jpipeEach channel installs a jpipe launcher on your PATH; run jpipe doctor to
check the installed version and its runtime dependencies. The fat JAR is also
attached to every GitHub Release.
After building from source, the fat JAR is at jpipe-cli/target/jpipe-cli-*.jar. The
process subcommand is the default, so these two invocations are equivalent:
java -jar jpipe-cli/target/jpipe-cli-*.jar -i my.jd -d MyModel -f dot
java -jar jpipe-cli/target/jpipe-cli-*.jar process -i my.jd -d MyModel -f dot| Flag | Short | Description |
|---|---|---|
--input FILE |
-i |
Input .jd source file (default: stdin) |
--output FILE |
-o |
Output file (default: stdout) |
--diagram NAME |
-d |
Name of the model to export (required) |
--format FORMAT |
-f |
Output format — see table below (default: JPIPE) |
--headless |
Suppress the logo banner | |
--log-level LEVEL |
Log verbosity: OFF ERROR WARN INFO DEBUG TRACE |
| Format | Description | Requires Graphviz |
|---|---|---|
JPIPE |
Canonical jPipe source (round-trip) | No |
DOT |
Graphviz DOT source | No |
PNG |
Rendered PNG image | Yes |
JPEG |
Rendered JPEG image | Yes |
SVG |
Rendered SVG image | Yes |
JSON |
JSON model dump | No |
PYTHON |
Python object model | No |
Install Graphviz and run jpipe doctor to verify that
the dot binary is on your PATH before using image formats.
# Parse and validate without exporting — prints diagnostics, statistics, and the symbol table
java -jar jpipe-cli/target/jpipe-cli-*.jar diagnostic -i my.jd
# Same report as JSON, for IDEs and other tooling
java -jar jpipe-cli/target/jpipe-cli-*.jar diagnostic -i my.jd -f json
# Check runtime dependencies (Graphviz)
java -jar jpipe-cli/target/jpipe-cli-*.jar doctorjustification MyModel {
conclusion c is "Our claim"
strategy s is "Argument"
evidence e1 is "Evidence A"
evidence e2 is "Evidence B"
s supports c
e1 supports s
e2 supports s
}
Compile it to a DOT diagram:
java -jar jpipe-cli/target/jpipe-cli-*.jar -i my.jd -d MyModel -f dot -o my.dot
dot -Tpng my.dot -o my.pngMore examples are in the examples/ directory.
@software{mcscert:jpipe,
author = {Mosser, Sébastien and Khuu, Kalvin Thuan-Phong and Chaudhari, Nirmal and Loh, Aaron and Patel, Deesha and Pulgar, Corinne},
license = {MIT},
title = {{jPipe}},
url = {https://github.com/jpipe-mcscert/jpipe-compiler}
}Found a bug, or want to add a cool feature? Feel free to fork this repository and send a pull request.
If you're interested in contributing to the research effort related to jPipe, feel free to contact the PI: Dr. Sébastien Mosser.
We do have undergrad summer internships available to contribute to the compiler, as well as MASc and PhD positions in Software Engineering at Mac.
Parts of this codebase were developed with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic), an AI coding assistant. We are transparent about this use and welcome AI-assisted contributions, subject to the following conditions:
- Pull requests must not be 100% AI-generated. Every contribution must reflect the understanding and judgement of a human author.
- Human authors are fully responsible for the correctness, quality, and appropriateness of their contributions, regardless of whether AI tools were used in their preparation.
- Reviewers may ask contributors to explain any part of their submission.
We acknowledge the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), as well as McMaster Excellence in Research Award (EREA) from the Faculty of Engineering.
