OpenRewrite

Maintaining secure, up-to-date codebases often diverts developers from creating new value. Moderne addresses this challenge with the OpenRewrite project and the Moderne Platform, innovative tools that improve the developer experience with automated code refactoring and enhanced security. OpenRewrite is an open-source ecosystem enabling developers to efficiently eliminate technical debt, offering over 2,700 community-driven recipes for precise code search and transformation.

The Moderne Platform scales these capabilities across large codebases, automating code migrations, security fixes, and analyses at mass scale. By automating these routine tasks, OpenRewrite and Moderne significantly improve and secure codebases.

What sets this project apart is its ability to provide deterministic, accurate code transformations that surpass traditional search tools and AI assistants. OpenRewrite introduces the Lossless Semantic Tree (LST), capturing rich semantic data for precise modifications and leveraging deterministic recipes for scalable refactoring. Technologies used include Java, Apache Maven, Gradle, GraalVM Native Image, and GraphQL. Leveraging the Java ecosystem, the project utilizes the Java compiler to generate LST artifacts, which recipes query and modify to enact code changes.

Already in production and adopted by major organizations, its impact is significant. Amazon reported saving an estimated 4,500 developer-years by using OpenRewrite for Java upgrades, enhancing security and code quality.

The jury commends Moderne for its innovative approach and already proven impact to improving and securing codebases, enabling teams to focus on moving forward, while OpenRewrite fights technical debt. The OpenRewrite project is a very deserving nominee for the NLJUG Innovation Award 2024.