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AI Slop Code RIsk Monitor

DietrichGebert/ponytail

Makes your AI agent think like the laziest senior dev in the room. The best code is the code you never wrote.

24.3 Elevated pattern signal View on GitHub

Maintenance and Governance Review

This report summarizes scanner evidence for DietrichGebert/ponytail, a JavaScript project with 160,563 GitHub stars. SynthScan examined 15,307 lines of code across 143 source files, recording 154 pattern matches distributed across 13 syntactic categories. The legacy adjusted pattern signal is 24.3 (Elevated pattern signal); it is not an authorship estimate.

Use the findings to ask whether maintainers can explain intent, verify dependencies, simplify unnecessary scaffolding, and focus review effort. Risk Payload v1 adds ownership, supply-chain, over-engineering, and review-effort vectors when available. These are prompts for human verification, not probabilities, security findings, or measured maintenance costs.

24.3
Adjusted Signal
24.3
Raw Pattern Score
100%
Time Factor
2026-10-10
Last Push
160.6K
Stars
JavaScript
Language
15.3K
Lines of Code
143
Files
154
Pattern Hits
2026-10-12
Scan Date
0.32
HC Hit Rate

Risk Review · v3

Use each vector to guide manual verification of the underlying findings.

Cognitive Ownership Risk 8.3/100 · LOW

Can maintainers explain intent, assumptions, and trade-offs? 21 finding(s).

Hallucinated Dependency & Supply Chain Risk 47.0/100 · MEDIUM

Are imports declared and package/API names verified? 40 finding(s).

Agent Over-Engineering Ratio 39.5/100 · MEDIUM

Are wrappers, guards, and repeated structures necessary? 96 finding(s).

PR Review Velocity Impact 76.4/100 · CRITICAL

Which changes need focused human review? 154 finding(s).

What These Metrics Mean

Adjusted Signal
Legacy pattern score normalized per 1,000 scanned lines and multiplied by the repository-level time factor. It is not an estimate of AI authorship.
Raw Pattern Score
Sum of severity- and context-weighted pattern findings before applying the time factor.
Time Factor
A coarse multiplier based on repository last-push metadata. It does not identify when individual code was written.
Pattern Hits
Count of configured pattern findings. Review each location and surrounding code before acting.
HC Hit Rate
High- and critical-severity findings per scanned file. Severity is a configured detector weight, not proof of a vulnerability or authorship.
Lines / Files
Scan coverage denominators used by the legacy normalized score.

Pattern-Signal History

This chart tracks the legacy adjusted pattern score across scan runs. Changes can reflect source changes, scan coverage, or detector/scoring versions; they do not measure AI adoption or prove that a team refactored code. Compare runs only when their scoring versions are compatible. The dashed line tracks the raw pattern-hit count.

Severity Breakdown

Groups findings by configured severity weight. Severity is not a confidence estimate, security rating, or proof that a package is missing. Verify imports against the project's manifests and inspect each finding in its local design context.

CRITICAL 0HIGH 46MEDIUM 29LOW 79

Directory Score Breakdown

This horizontal bar chart shows where configured pattern scores accumulate across directories. Treat the bars as locations to inspect, not as evidence of authorship or code quality. Use the file-level findings to decide whether a directory needs a focused ownership, dependency, complexity, or review check.

Pattern Findings

The scanner identified 154 distinct pattern matches across 13 syntactic categories. Each entry below represents a discrete location in the source code where the engine recorded a detector match to inspect in context. Expand any category row to inspect the individual file paths, line numbers, code snippets, and the lexical context (CODE, COMMENT, or STRING) in which each match was detected.

Reading the findings table: The Severity column indicates the configured finding weight (CRITICAL / HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW). The Context column identifies whether the match occurred inside executable code, an inline comment, or a string literal — legacy comment-context matches receive a ×1.5 score weight. The ⚡ bolt icon marks clustered matches: three or more patterns within a 10-line window, each receiving an additional ×1.5 density multiplier under the legacy scoring model.

Cross-Language Confusion (JS/TS)22 hits · 110 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
HIGHtests/correctness.test.js32 'def validate_email(email):\n return True',CODE
HIGHtests/correctness.test.js97print(df['amount'].sum())`,CODE
HIGHtests/correctness.test.js142print(351)`,CODE
HIGHtests/correctness.test.js153print(351)`,CODE
HIGHtests/hermes-plugin.test.js87print(json.dumps({'skills': ctx.skills, 'hooks': ctx.hooks, 'commands': ctx.commands}, sort_keys=True))CODE
HIGHtests/hermes-plugin.test.js112print(json.dumps({'ctx': ctx}))CODE
HIGHtests/hermes-plugin.test.js143print(json.dumps({CODE
HIGHtests/hermes-plugin.test.js171print(json.dumps(mod._pre_llm_call()))CODE
HIGHtests/hermes-plugin.test.js193print(json.dumps({CODE
HIGHtests/hermes-plugin.test.js212print(json.dumps({'ctx': ctx}))CODE
HIGHtests/hermes-plugin.test.js239print(json.dumps({'message': message, 'context': injected['context']}))CODE
HIGHtests/hermes-plugin.test.js267print(json.dumps({'first': first, 'second': second, 'switched': switched, 'after_switch': after_switch}))CODE
HIGHtests/hermes-plugin.test.js293print(json.dumps(result))CODE
HIGHtests/hermes-plugin.test.js309print(json.dumps([running, kept, switched, mod._current_mode]))CODE
HIGHtests/hermes-plugin.test.js329print(json.dumps(cases, sort_keys=True))CODE
HIGHtests/hermes-plugin.test.js358print(json.dumps({'filtered': mod._filter_skill_body_for_mode(body, 'ultra')}))CODE
HIGHtests/hermes-plugin.test.js381print(json.dumps(mod._filter_skill_body_for_mode(body, '${mode}')))CODE
HIGHbenchmarks/correctness.js110 print("FAIL: no validator function found")CODE
HIGHbenchmarks/correctness.js127 print("FAIL: " + "; ".join(failures))CODE
HIGHbenchmarks/correctness.js129print("PASS")CODE
HIGHbenchmarks/correctness.js218 print("PASS")CODE
HIGHbenchmarks/correctness.js221 print("FAIL: output was: " + repr(output[:200]))CODE
Cross-Language Confusion12 hits · 79 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
HIGH⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py446# `null`: JSON.parse("null") returns null, which slips past a try/catch around parsing, thenCOMMENT
HIGH⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py456# good: rejects a non-object body (incl. null) with 400 and stays up.COMMENT
HIGH⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py453 "// Listen on process.env.PORT || 3000.\n"CODE
HIGH⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py470 const id = m[1] ? Number(m[1]) : null;CODE
HIGH⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py471 if (id === null) {CODE
HIGH⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py476 if (body === null || typeof body !== 'object' || Array.isArray(body)) return send(res, 400, { error: 'body must beCODE
HIGHbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py487server.listen(process.env.PORT || 3000);CODE
HIGHbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py505 const id = m[1] ? Number(m[1]) : null;CODE
HIGHbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py506 if (id === null) {CODE
HIGHbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py520server.listen(process.env.PORT || 3000);CODE
HIGHbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py1256 if (!open) return null;CODE
HIGHbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py1338 "clients. Listen on process.env.PORT || 3000."),STRING
Empty Error Handlers11 hits · 55 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
HIGH__init__.py61except Exception:CODE
HIGHbenchmarks/agentic/run.py144except Exception: passCODE
HIGHbenchmarks/agentic/run.py261except ProcessLookupError: pass # already exitedCODE
HIGHbenchmarks/agentic/run.py300except Exception: passCODE
HIGHbenchmarks/agentic/run.py384except Exception: passCODE
HIGHbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py436except Exception: passCODE
HIGHbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py563except urllib.error.HTTPError:CODE
HIGHbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py565except Exception:CODE
HIGHbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py575except Exception: passCODE
HIGHbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py717except Exception: passCODE
HIGHbenchmarks/agentic/judge.py46except Exception:CODE
Decorative Section Separators24 hits · 49 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
MEDIUM⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py67# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUM⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py69# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUM⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py311# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUM⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py315# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUM⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py361# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUM⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py370# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUM⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py444# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUM⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py450# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUM⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py577# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUMbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py108# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUMbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py110# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUMbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py168# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUMbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py170# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUMbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py211# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUMbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py214# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUMbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py262# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUMbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py264# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUMbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py413# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUMbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py592# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUMbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py799# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUMbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py810# ======================================================================================COMMENT
MEDIUMbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py1330# ======================================================================================STRING
MEDIUMbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py1508 # ==================================================================================STRING
MEDIUMbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py1512 # ==================================================================================STRING
Excessive Try-Catch Wrapping58 hits · 47 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
LOW__init__.py61 except Exception:CODE
LOW__init__.py173 except Exception:CODE
LOW__init__.py214 except Exception:CODE
MEDIUMexamples/csv-sum.md49 print("Error: sales.csv not found")CODE
MEDIUMexamples/csv-sum.md51 print("Error: 'amount' column not found")CODE
LOWbenchmarks/correctness.js207except Exception:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/run.py89 except Exception: return 0CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/run.py107 except Exception: return 0, 0, 0, 0CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/run.py144 except Exception: passCODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/run.py300 except Exception: passCODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/run.py384 except Exception: passCODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/run.py386 except Exception as e:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/run.py456 except Exception: return "unknown"CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/run.py518 except Exception as e:CODE
LOW⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py79 except Exception as e:CODE
LOW⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py84 except Exception:CODE
LOW⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py323 except Exception as e:CODE
LOW⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py331 except Exception:CODE
LOW⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py381 except Exception as e:CODE
LOW⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py385 except Exception:CODE
LOW⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py436 except Exception: passCODE
LOW⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py552 except Exception: time.sleep(0.1)CODE
LOW⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py559 except Exception:CODE
LOW⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py565 except Exception:CODE
LOW⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py571 except Exception: safe = FalseCODE
LOW⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py575 except Exception: passCODE
LOW⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py712 except Exception as e:CODE
LOW⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py717 except Exception: passCODE
LOW⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py719 except Exception:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py44 except Exception:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py121 except Exception as e:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py127 except Exception:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py185 except Exception as e:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py190 except Exception:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py225 except Exception as e:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py230 except Exception:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py279 except Exception as e:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py283 except Exception:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py425 except Exception as e: return {"correct": 0, "safe": 1, "reason": f"compile error: {str(e)[:80]}"}CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py602 except Exception:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py617 except Exception as e:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py621 except Exception:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py669 except Exception as e:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py673 except Exception:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py769 except Exception as e:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py773 except Exception:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py831 except Exception: failed += 1; continueCODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py837 except Exception: failed += 1CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py856 except Exception as e:STRING
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/answer.py94 except Exception: d[k] = NoneCODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/answer.py186 except Exception: reply = ""CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/answer.py217 except Exception: reply = ""CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/judge.py46 except Exception:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/judge.py61 except Exception: continueCODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/judge.py88 except Exception as e:CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/judge.py99 except Exception:CODE
MEDIUMbenchmarks/agentic/judge.py41def load_key():CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/complete.py57 except Exception: d[SCORE_KEY] = NoneCODE
Over-Commented Block13 hits · 12 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
LOW.opencode/plugins/index.js1// OpenCode 2 loads this file automatically from .opencode/plugins/ and does notCOMMENT
LOWtests/hooks.test.js781 assert.equal(r.status, 0, r.stderr);COMMENT
LOWtests/hooks-windows.test.js1#!/usr/bin/env nodeCOMMENT
LOWhooks/ponytail-mode-tracker.js161// Exit on 'end', not just finish(): the fallback timer below must stay ref'dCOMMENT
LOWhooks/ponytail-activate.js81COMMENT
LOWhooks/ponytail-subagent.js1#!/usr/bin/env nodeCOMMENT
LOWbenchmarks/behavior.yaml1# Ponytail behavior gates: does the ruleset actually produce its refinedCOMMENT
LOWbenchmarks/correctness.js1// Functional correctness assertion: runs generated code against lightweight testCOMMENT
LOWbenchmarks/behavior.js1// Behavior gate: does the ponytail ruleset actually PRODUCE its refinedCOMMENT
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/tasks.py581# fix is about. axis="safe" carries the QUALITY signal (reuse / root-cause), so a working-but-COMMENT
LOWscripts/build-openclaw-skills.js1#!/usr/bin/env nodeCOMMENT
LOWscripts/check-versions.js1#!/usr/bin/env nodeCOMMENT
LOWscripts/publish-openclaw-skills.js1#!/usr/bin/env nodeCOMMENT
Synthetic Comment Markers1 hit · 5 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
HIGH…arks/results/2026-06-22-issue-245-217-comprehension.md94- **#217: rung shipped as requested**, no regression; the duplication failure did not reproduce onCODE
Fake / Example Data5 hits · 5 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
LOWexamples/email-validation.md35 "user@example.com", # ValidCODE
LOWexamples/email-validation.md98 "user@example.com",CODE
LOWexamples/email-validation.md131 print(validate_email_production("user@example.com")) # TrueCODE
LOWbenchmarks/correctness.js115if not fn("user@example.com"):CODE
LOW⚡benchmarks/agentic/tasks.py380 correct = bool(fn("user@example.com")) and not bool(fn("not-an-email"))CODE
Hyper-Verbose Identifiers3 hits · 3 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
LOW__init__.py70def _filter_skill_body_for_mode(body: str, mode: str) -> str:CODE
LOW__init__.py208def _make_skill_command_handler(ctx: Any, command: str) -> Callable[[str], str]:CODE
LOWexamples/email-validation.md114def validate_email_production(email: str) -> bool:CODE
Modern AI Meta-Vocabulary1 hit · 2 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
MEDIUMbenchmarks/README.md86| [RicardoCostaGit](https://github.com/RicardoCostaGit/ponytail-benchmark-from-cursor) | Multi-turn agentic runs via theCODE
Deep Nesting2 hits · 2 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/run.py205CODE
LOWbenchmarks/agentic/run.py330CODE
AI Slop Vocabulary1 hit · 2 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
MEDIUMscripts/check-rule-copies.js49 'correct on edge cases', // robust-variant ruleCODE
Unused Imports1 hit · 1 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
LOW__init__.py3CODE