A tool that bootstraps your dotfiles ⚡️
This report summarizes scanner evidence for anishathalye/dotbot, a Python project with 8,016 GitHub stars. SynthScan examined 6,418 lines of code across 51 source files, recording 88 pattern matches distributed across 8 syntactic categories. The legacy adjusted pattern signal is 14.3 (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? 64 finding(s).
Are imports declared and package/API names verified? 13 finding(s).
Are wrappers, guards, and repeated structures necessary? 66 finding(s).
Which changes need focused human review? 88 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 88 distinct pattern matches across 8 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 | tests/test_bin_dotbot.py | 16 | def test_find_python_executable( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_plugins.py | 30 | def test_plugin_absolute_path( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_plugins.py | 100 | def test_plugin_command_line_and_config( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_plugins.py | 165 | def test_plugin_multiple_directives( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_plugins.py | 195 | def test_plugin_duplicate_loading( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 15 | def test_link_canonicalization( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 73 | def test_link_environment_user_expansion_link_name( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 90 | def test_link_environment_variable_expansion_target( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 110 | def test_link_environment_variable_expansion_target_extended( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 130 | def test_link_environment_variable_expansion_link_name( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 168 | def test_link_environment_variable_unset( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 185 | def test_link_force_leaves_when_nonexistent( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 208 | def test_link_force_overwrite_symlink( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 224 | def test_link_force_directory( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 242 | def test_link_backup_directory( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 285 | def test_link_backup_not_created_if_link( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 302 | def test_link_backup_created_if_force( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 323 | def test_link_backup_error_if_dest_already_exists( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 429 | def test_link_backup_relink_force_with_existing_incorrect_symlink( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 459 | def test_link_backup_relink_real_file_skips_delete( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 498 | def test_link_backup_relink_with_existing_incorrect_symlink_glob( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 667 | def test_link_glob_ignore_no_glob_chars( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 882 | def test_link_glob_multi_star( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 998 | def test_link_glob_single_match( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 1125 | def test_link_if_defaults_windows( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 1203 | def test_link_no_canonicalize( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 1320 | def test_link_relink_leaves_file( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 1335 | def test_link_relink_overwrite_symlink( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 1350 | def test_link_relink_relative_leaves_file( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 1382 | def test_target_is_not_overwritten_by_symlink_trickery( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 1567 | def test_symlink_exists_when_hardlink_requested( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 1594 | def test_hardlink_already_exists( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 1619 | def test_broken_symlink_shows_invalid_link_message( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 1804 | def test_link_dry_run_overwrite( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 1850 | def test_link_error_creating_link( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_link.py | 1892 | def test_link_error_creating_directory( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_clean.py | 32 | def test_clean_environment_variable_expansion( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_clean.py | 185 | def test_clean_dry_run_recursive( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_create.py | 46 | def test_default_mode_override( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_shell.py | 80 | def test_shell_cli_verbosity_stderr( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_shell.py | 94 | def test_shell_cli_verbosity_stderr_with_explicit_stdout_off( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_shell.py | 119 | def test_shell_cli_verbosity_stderr_with_defaults_stdout_off( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_shell.py | 148 | def test_shell_single_v_verbosity_stdout( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_shell.py | 162 | def test_shell_single_v_verbosity_stderr( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_shell.py | 215 | def test_shell_stdout_disabled_by_default( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_shell.py | 235 | def test_shell_can_override_defaults( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_shell.py | 281 | def test_shell_quiet_enabled_with_description( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_shell.py | 309 | def test_shell_quiet_enabled_without_description( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_cli.py | 186 | def test_plugin_loading_directory( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_cli.py | 234 | def test_disable_builtin_plugins( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_cli.py | 249 | def test_plugin_context_plugin( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_cli.py | 271 | def test_plugin_dispatcher_no_plugins( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_cli.py | 294 | def test_dry_run_unaware_plugin( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_cli.py | 317 | def test_dry_run_aware_plugin( | CODE |
| LOW | tests/test_cli.py | 337 | def test_dry_run_aware_plugin_no_dry_run( | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | src/dotbot/__init__.py | 1 | CODE | |
| LOW | src/dotbot/__init__.py | 2 | CODE | |
| LOW | src/dotbot/__init__.py | 3 | CODE | |
| LOW | src/dotbot/context.py | 4 | CODE | |
| LOW | src/dotbot/context.py | 4 | CODE | |
| LOW | src/dotbot/context.py | 7 | CODE | |
| LOW | src/dotbot/util/__init__.py | 1 | CODE | |
| LOW | src/dotbot/plugins/__init__.py | 1 | CODE | |
| LOW | src/dotbot/plugins/__init__.py | 2 | CODE | |
| LOW | src/dotbot/plugins/__init__.py | 3 | CODE | |
| LOW | src/dotbot/plugins/__init__.py | 4 | CODE | |
| LOW | src/dotbot/messenger/__init__.py | 1 | CODE | |
| LOW | src/dotbot/messenger/__init__.py | 2 | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | tests/test_bin_dotbot.py | 26 | # Create a link to sh. | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tests/conftest.py | 183 | # Create an isolated temporary directory from which to operate. | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tests/test_link.py | 442 | # Create an incorrect symlink at the destination. | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | src/dotbot/__init__.py | 5 | __all__ = ["Plugin", "__version__", "main"] | CODE |
| LOW | src/dotbot/context.py | 26 | def set_base_directory(self, base_directory: str) -> None: | CODE |
| LOW | src/dotbot/context.py | 35 | def set_defaults(self, defaults: Dict[str, Any]) -> None: | CODE |
| LOW | src/dotbot/util/__init__.py | 3 | __all__ = ["shell_command"] | CODE |
| LOW | src/dotbot/plugins/__init__.py | 6 | __all__ = ["Clean", "Create", "Link", "Shell"] | CODE |
| LOW | src/dotbot/messenger/__init__.py | 4 | __all__ = ["Level", "Messenger"] | CODE |
| LOW | src/dotbot/messenger/messenger.py | 11 | def set_level(self, level: Level) -> None: | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | src/dotbot/dispatcher.py | 53 | CODE | |
| LOW | src/dotbot/cli.py | 108 | CODE | |
| LOW | src/dotbot/plugins/link.py | 31 | CODE | |
| LOW | src/dotbot/plugins/link.py | 289 | CODE | |
| LOW | src/dotbot/plugins/clean.py | 43 | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HIGH | src/dotbot/util/module.py | 23 | except TypeError: | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | src/dotbot/dispatcher.py | 79 | except Exception as err: # noqa: BLE001 | CODE |
| LOW | src/dotbot/dispatcher.py | 106 | except Exception as err: # noqa: BLE001 | CODE |
| LOW | src/dotbot/config.py | 29 | except Exception as e: | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | src/dotbot/util/common.py | 21 | if platform.system() == "Windows": | COMMENT |