A tool that bootstraps your dotfiles ⚡️
This report presents the forensic synthetic code analysis of anishathalye/dotbot, a Python project with 7,959 GitHub stars. SynthScan v2.0 examined 6,418 lines of code across 51 source files, recording 87 pattern matches distributed across 7 syntactic categories. The overall adjusted score of 13.6 places this repository in the Low AI signal band.
The scanner applied 160+ deterministic lexical heuristics, multi-line block detectors, abstract syntax tree depth profilers, and a cross-file Jaccard similarity matrix to construct a statistically normalised synthetic code estimate. All matches are individually weighted by severity coefficient and contextual multiplier before summation, and the resulting headline score is temporally discounted to account for the repository's development history relative to the commercial emergence of large language model coding tooling (November 2022 onward).
Longitudinal tracking requires multiple scan runs. Once this repository is re-scanned after new commits land, this chart will visualise how the synthetic code signal evolves over time — enabling you to detect whether AI authorship is growing, stabilising, or being actively corrected by human engineers.
Classifies detected patterns by their diagnostic confidence and structural impact. CRITICAL patterns (coefficient 10) represent definitive synthetic signatures — hallucinated imports, explicit LLM attribution metadata — virtually never produced by human authors. HIGH (5) indicates strong structural tells such as cross-file repetition or cross-linguistic idioms. MEDIUM (2) covers recognisable conversational padding and AI-specific vocabulary. LOW (1) captures subtle indicators like tautological comments and generic boilerplate that require density to carry independent signal.
This horizontal bar chart decomposes the repository's raw synthetic code score by top-level directory, allowing you to pinpoint precisely which modules or components carry the highest AI authorship density. Directories with disproportionately high scores relative to their size warrant targeted manual review: concentrated AI signatures often trace back to mass-generated configuration layers, auto-ported test suites, LLM-scaffolded boilerplate classes, or entire subsystems authored under heavy copilot assistance. Use this view to prioritise your human code-review effort.
The scanner identified 87 distinct pattern matches across 7 syntactic categories. Each entry below represents a discrete location in the source code where the engine recorded a statistically significant AI authorship indicator. 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 diagnostic confidence level (CRITICAL / HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW). The Context column identifies whether the match occurred inside executable code, an inline comment, or a string literal — comment-context matches receive a ×1.5 weight because LLMs systematically over-annotate. The ⚡ bolt icon marks clustered matches: three or more patterns within a 10-line window, each receiving an additional ×1.5 density multiplier as dense clusters constitute far stronger evidence of synthetic authorship than isolated hits.
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |