Json.NET is a popular high-performance JSON framework for .NET
This report summarizes scanner evidence for JamesNK/Newtonsoft.Json, a C# project with 11,313 GitHub stars. SynthScan examined 233,122 lines of code across 987 source files, recording 1259 pattern matches distributed across 4 syntactic categories. The legacy adjusted pattern signal is 5.5 (Moderate 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.
Use each vector to guide manual verification of the underlying findings.
Can maintainers explain intent, assumptions, and trade-offs? 1252 finding(s).
Are imports declared and package/API names verified? 7 finding(s).
Are wrappers, guards, and repeated structures necessary? 0 finding(s).
Which changes need focused human review? 1259 finding(s).
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.
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.
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.
The scanner identified 1259 distinct pattern matches across 4 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.
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | .github/workflows/codeql.yml | 1 | # For most projects, this workflow file will not need changing; you simply need | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/codeql.yml | 61 | # This includes steps like installing compilers or runtimes (`actions/setup-node` | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/ConstructorHandling.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/ConstructorHandling.cs | 21 | // WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonRequiredAttribute.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonConverterAttribute.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonConverterAttribute.cs | 41 | /// Gets the <see cref="Type"/> of the <see cref="JsonConverter"/>. | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/DefaultJsonNameTable.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonConverter.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonConverter.cs | 41 | /// </summary> | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonConverter.cs | 61 | /// <returns> | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonConverter.cs | 101 | /// Writes the JSON representation of the object. | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonConverter.cs | 121 | throw new JsonSerializationException("Converter cannot read JSON with the specified existing value. {0} | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonPosition.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/Required.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/Required.cs | 21 | // WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/WriteState.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/WriteState.cs | 21 | // WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/WriteState.cs | 41 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/IArrayPool.cs | 1 | namespace Newtonsoft.Json | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonConverterCollection.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/FloatParseHandling.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/FloatParseHandling.cs | 21 | // WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/NullValueHandling.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/NullValueHandling.cs | 21 | // WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/Formatting.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/Formatting.cs | 21 | // WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/IJsonLineInfo.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/IJsonLineInfo.cs | 21 | // WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/IJsonLineInfo.cs | 41 | /// <summary> | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonSerializerSettings.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonSerializerSettings.cs | 141 | /// <summary> | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonSerializerSettings.cs | 161 | /// </summary> | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonSerializerSettings.cs | 221 | /// The default value is <see cref="Json.ConstructorHandling.Default" />. | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonSerializerSettings.cs | 301 | /// <summary> | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonSerializerSettings.cs | 421 | set => _stringEscapeHandling = value; | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonExtensionDataAttribute.cs | 1 | using System; | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonTextReader.Async.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonTextReader.Async.cs | 41 | public partial class JsonTextReader | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonToken.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonToken.cs | 41 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonToken.cs | 61 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonToken.cs | 81 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonToken.cs | 101 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonWriter.Async.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonWriter.Async.cs | 661 | } | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonTextReader.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonTextReader.cs | 2621 | } | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/TypeNameHandling.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/TypeNameHandling.cs | 21 | // WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/TypeNameHandling.cs | 41 | { | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/TypeNameHandling.cs | 61 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/DateTimeZoneHandling.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/DateTimeZoneHandling.cs | 21 | // WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/DateTimeZoneHandling.cs | 41 | /// Treat as a UTC. If the <see cref="DateTime"/> object represents a local time, it is converted to a UTC. | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonArrayAttribute.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/TraceLevel.cs | 21 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonReader.Async.cs | 1 | #region License | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonReader.Async.cs | 101 | /// <summary> | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/Newtonsoft.Json/JsonReader.Async.cs | 161 | /// Asynchronously reads the next JSON token from the source as a <see cref="Nullable{T}"/> of <see cref="DateTi | COMMENT |
| 1188 more matches not shown… | ||||
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HIGH | …ewtonsoft.Json.Tests/FileSystemEntityModel.Designer.cs | 5 | // This code was generated from a template. | COMMENT |
| HIGH | …soft.Json.Tests/LinqToSql/LinqToSqlClasses.designer.cs | 6 | // This code was generated by a tool. | COMMENT |
| HIGH | …oft.Json.Tests/TestObjects/SqlTypesDataSet.Designer.cs | 5 | // This code was generated by a tool. | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | …ocumentation/Samples/JsonPath/ErrorWhenNoMatchQuery.cs | 54 | 'Name': 'John Doe', | CODE |
| LOW | …ocumentation/Samples/JsonPath/ErrorWhenNoMatchQuery.cs | 57 | 'Name': 'Jane Doe', | CODE |
| LOW | ….Tests/Serialization/JsonSerializerCollectionsTests.cs | 1831 | PhoneNumber p1 = new PhoneNumber("555-1212"); | CODE |
| LOW | ….Tests/Serialization/JsonSerializerCollectionsTests.cs | 1843 | ""phoneNumber"": ""555-1212"" | CODE |
| LOW | ….Tests/Serialization/JsonSerializerCollectionsTests.cs | 1857 | Assert.AreEqual("555-1212", newName.pNumbers[0].phoneNumber); | CODE |
| LOW | …tonsoft.Json.Tests/Serialization/JsonSerializerTest.cs | 6005 | person.Name = "John Doe"; | CODE |
| LOW | …tonsoft.Json.Tests/Serialization/JsonSerializerTest.cs | 6386 | var testObj = new PersonSerializable() { Name = "John Doe", Age = 28 }; | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | .github/workflows/codeql.yml | 54 | # If you are analyzing a compiled language, you can modify the 'build-mode' for that language to customize how | COMMENT |