Rethinking Complexity Metrics for LLM-Integrated Applications: Beyond Source Code
arXiv cs.AI4w4 min read
arXiv:2607.01903v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: 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
