NARGS — Number of Arguments - mehen

NARGS counts the number of formal arguments declared by each function, method, or closure. mehen reports per-function values plus aggregate statistics (total, min, max, average) at the file level.

What mehen emits

Key	Type	Description
`nargs`	int	Total arguments across all functions and closures in the space.
`nargs.average`	float	Mean argument count per function.
`nargs.functions`	int	Total arguments declared by named functions.
`nargs.functions_min` / `_max` / `_average`	—	Aggregates over named functions only.
`nargs.closures`	int	Total arguments declared by closures/lambdas.
`nargs.closures_min` / `_max` / `_average`	—	Aggregates over closures only.
`nargs.average_functions`	float	Mean per named function.
`nargs.average_closures`	float	Mean per closure.
`nargs.total_functions`	int	Total of `nargs.functions` (alias).
`nargs.total_closures`	int	Total of `nargs.closures` (alias).

Why both functions and closures are reported

Closures are first-class values in TypeScript, Rust, Ruby, Kotlin, Python, etc. Mixing closure parameter counts with named-function parameter counts hides the long-tail of inline lambdas. mehen reports both buckets so you can see, for example, that a file’s named functions average 2 arguments while its callbacks average 4.

How to read it

Conventional ceilings (no universal authority — pick one for your repo):

Per-function `nargs`	Interpretation
0–3	Easy to call.
4–5	Borderline; consider a parameter object.
6+	Refactor candidate.

Robert C. Martin’s Clean Code recommends ≤ 3 as a soft cap; it’s a stylistic preference, not a hard rule.

References

Sonar: Metrics definitions.
Martin, R. C. (2008). Clean Code, ch. 3. (Soft cap of 3 for “ideal” function arity.)

See also

NOM — number of methods.
NEXITS — exit-point count.