Modern C++ Terminal Emulator
This report presents the forensic synthetic code analysis of contour-terminal/contour, a C++ project with 3,009 GitHub stars. SynthScan v2.0 examined 299,163 lines of code across 1063 source files, recording 1587 pattern matches distributed across 11 syntactic categories. The overall adjusted score of 5.4 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).
This chart maps the temporal evolution of the adjusted synthetic code score across successive scan runs. An upward trajectory indicates ongoing incorporation of AI-generated code or expanding LLM-assisted scaffolding; a stable or declining trajectory may reflect active human refactoring, code removal, or the adoption of stricter authorship policies. The dashed secondary line (right axis) independently tracks total raw pattern hit count, which can diverge from the normalised score when codebase size changes significantly between scans.
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 1587 distinct pattern matches across 11 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 | _typos.toml | 1 | # Spell-check configuration. Run it with `scripts/check-spelling.py`, or via `ctest -L lint`. | COMMENT |
| LOW | CMakeLists.txt | 21 | if (NOT(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD)) | COMMENT |
| LOW | CMakeLists.txt | 101 | # libc++ 18 and 19 only; FreeBSD 15's base Clang 19 is where CI meets it, and so does anyone | COMMENT |
| LOW | CMakeLists.txt | 241 | list(APPEND CONTOUR_LINT_GATES ${name}) | COMMENT |
| LOW | CMakeLists.txt | 281 | endif() | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/DECAC.sh | 1 | #! /bin/bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/colors-256.sh | 1 | #!/usr/bin/env bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/DECATC.sh | 1 | #! /bin/bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/decoration.sh | 41 | # decoration 25 "Not blinking" | COMMENT |
| LOW | examples/regis-animation.cpp | 1 | // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 | COMMENT |
| LOW | examples/text-sizing-demo.cpp | 1 | // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 | COMMENT |
| LOW | examples/text-sizing-demo.cpp | 21 | /// | `h` | 0..2 | horizontal alignment: left/right/center | | COMMENT |
| LOW | examples/multi-page-demo.cpp | 1 | // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 | COMMENT |
| LOW | examples/regis-plot3d.cpp | 1 | // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 | COMMENT |
| LOW | examples/regis-primitives.cpp | 1 | // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 | COMMENT |
| LOW | examples/watch-mouse-events.cpp | 1 | // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 | COMMENT |
| LOW | examples/watch-dec-locator.cpp | 1 | // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 | COMMENT |
| LOW | examples/watch-dec-locator.cpp | 81 | /// Decodes the parameter string of a DECLRP report into its five fields. | COMMENT |
| LOW | examples/drcs-demo.cpp | 1 | // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 | COMMENT |
| LOW | examples/drcs-demo.cpp | 141 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | scripts/run-display-tests.sh | 1 | #! /bin/bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/apt-update.sh | 1 | #! /bin/bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/fetch-vttest.sh | 1 | #!/usr/bin/env bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/fetch-vttest.sh | 21 | # leaves it fully buffered, and only `Wait:`/`Done:`, give_up() and menu2() ever flush -- so a | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/fetch-esctest.sh | 1 | #!/usr/bin/env bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/check-clang-tidy-config.sh | 1 | #! /bin/bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/ci/vttest-install.sh | 1 | #! /bin/bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/ci/notcurses-install-deps.sh | 1 | #! /bin/bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/docs.yml | 41 | # C driver has to exist under that name too (g++-14 does depend on it, but the build should | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/spelling.yml | 1 | # Spell check. | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/build.yml | 101 | - name: set environment variables | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/build.yml | 221 | # nothing about its behaviour. | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/build.yml | 241 | test -f "$RUNNER_TEMP/contour-headless/share/contour/shell-integration/shell-integration.zsh" | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/build.yml | 361 | # os_version: [40] | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/build.yml | 381 | # echo "ARCH=${arch##* }" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT" | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/build.yml | 401 | # set -x | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/build.yml | 421 | # sed -i -e "s/fedora:35/fedora:${{ matrix.os_version }}/" .github/fedora/Dockerfile | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/build.yml | 441 | # name: "contour-${{ steps.set_vars.outputs.VERSION }}-1.fc${{ matrix.os_version }}.${{ steps.tags.outputs.ARC | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/build.yml | 481 | cmake --build build/ -j2 | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/build.yml | 681 | # cairo) are built from source against CMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET rather than | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/build.yml | 721 | && sudo make install | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/build.yml | 761 | # ctest, not a hand-written list of binaries: the previous four-line list predated | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/build.yml | 821 | # that hdiutil succeeded. | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/build.yml | 1141 | # framing that landed after 3.5. With 3.4 that oracle self-skipped, and the verification step | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/build.yml | 1261 | # A hung test (e.g. a dead-loop) must fail the matrix fast, not stall for hours. | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/vtrasterizer/TextureAtlas.hpp | 1 | // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/vtrasterizer/TextureAtlas.hpp | 21 | { | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/vtrasterizer/TextureAtlas.hpp | 121 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | src/vtrasterizer/TextureAtlas.hpp | 461 | constexpr iterator& operator++() noexcept | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/vtrasterizer/BoxDrawingRenderer.cpp | 1 | // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/vtrasterizer/BoxDrawingRenderer.cpp | 2261 | // TODO: ▣ U+25A3 WHITE SQUARE CONTAINING BLACK SMALL SQUARE | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/vtrasterizer/BoxDrawingRenderer.cpp | 2281 | // TODO: ▸ U+25B8 BLACK RIGHT-POINTING SMALL TRIANGLE | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/vtrasterizer/BoxDrawingRenderer.cpp | 2301 | // TODO: ◍ U+25CD CIRCLE WITH VERTICAL FILL | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/vtrasterizer/BoxDrawingRenderer.cpp | 2321 | // TODO: ◡ U+25E1 LOWER HALF CIRCLE | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/vtrasterizer/BoxDrawingRenderer.cpp | 2341 | // TODO: ◵ U+25F5 WHITE CIRCLE WITH LOWER LEFT QUADRANT | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/vtrasterizer/TextRenderer.hpp | 1 | // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/vtrasterizer/TextRenderer.hpp | 81 | void inspect(std::ostream& textOutput) const override; | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/vtrasterizer/GlyphSlicing.hpp | 1 | // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/vtrasterizer/GlyphSlicing.hpp | 141 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | src/vtrasterizer/GlyphSlicing.hpp | 221 | }; | COMMENT |
| 1476 more matches not shown… | ||||
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | CMakeLists.txt | 190 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | CMakeLists.txt | 270 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | CMakeLists.txt | 306 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | test/demo_math_symbols.py | 316 | # = 1 - ───── + ───── - ───── + ... | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | test/demo_parenthesis_pieces.py | 338 | # sin(x) = x · ⎜ 1 - ────── ⎟ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | .github/workflows/build.yml | 1915 | # ------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | src/crispy/CMakeLists.txt | 5 | # -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | src/crispy/CMakeLists.txt | 137 | # -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | src/contour/CMakeLists.txt | 889 | # ==================================================================================== | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | src/contour/CMakeLists.txt | 891 | # ==================================================================================== | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | src/vtbackend/CMakeLists.txt | 182 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | src/vtbackend/core/Color.hpp | 312 | // ╞═════════════╪═════════╪════════╪════════╡ | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | test/demo_parenthesis_pieces.py | 218 | """Verify seamless junction between hooks and extensions.""" | STRING |
| MEDIUM | scripts/fetch-vttest.sh | 13 | # conformance harness is happy with either: it takes whatever is on PATH unless told otherwise with | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | scripts/fetch-esctest.sh | 52 | # The suite's entry point lives one level down; that is the directory the harness runs it from. | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM⚡ | scripts/ci/vttest-install.sh | 5 | # Installs vttest, the VT test program the conformance harness drives. | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM⚡ | scripts/ci/vttest-install.sh | 7 | # vttest is a TEST-ONLY dependency: nothing of it is compiled, linked or shipped. The harness spawns | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM⚡ | scripts/ci/vttest-install.sh | 13 | # out of step: vttest runs off the end of the file, never reaches its exit, and the harness reports a | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | scripts/ci/notcurses-install-deps.sh | 4 | # Installs ONLY the test-harness runtime dependencies for the notcurses-demo / quick-shell-exit CI | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | src/crispy/Environment_test.cpp | 121 | // absent. Asserting only that it is not silently aliased keeps this robust either way. | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | src/vthost/client/LayoutReconstruction_test.cpp | 183 | // the converter must be robust on its own too: a split node missing a child | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | src/vtconformance/Report.hpp | 128 | std::string_view { "# VT sequences Contour does not yet honour, as reported by the conformance harness.\n" | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | test/demo_math_symbols.py | 67 | CODE | |
| LOW | test/demo_math_symbols.py | 84 | CODE | |
| LOW | test/demo_math_symbols.py | 205 | CODE | |
| LOW | test/demo_math_symbols.py | 261 | CODE | |
| LOW | test/demo_parenthesis_pieces.py | 99 | CODE | |
| LOW | test/demo_parenthesis_pieces.py | 116 | CODE | |
| LOW | test/demo_parenthesis_pieces.py | 188 | CODE | |
| LOW | scripts/check-spelling.py | 53 | CODE | |
| LOW | scripts/macos-bundle.py | 633 | CODE | |
| LOW | scripts/macos-bundle.py | 216 | CODE | |
| LOW | scripts/extract-changelog-from-metainfo.py | 42 | CODE | |
| LOW | scripts/lib/toolcache.py | 119 | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | …c/contour/cli/shell-integration/shell-integration.bash | 135 | # This function is installed as part of the PROMPT_COMMAND; | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | …c/contour/cli/shell-integration/shell-integration.bash | 143 | # This function is installed as part of the PROMPT_COMMAND. | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | …c/contour/cli/shell-integration/shell-integration.bash | 203 | # This function is installed as the DEBUG trap. It is invoked before each | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | src/vtconformance/Report.hpp | 130 | "# This file is a RATCHET, not a suppression list:\n" | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | src/vtrasterizer/GridMetrics.hpp | 51 | CellMargin cellMargin {}; // TODO: implement respecting cell margins. | CODE |
| LOW | src/vtpty/SshSession.cpp | 994 | // TODO: implement | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/contour/session/SessionFactory.cpp | 90 | // TODO: implement SSH host key verification dialog | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/vtbackend/input/InputGenerator.cpp | 537 | // TODO: implement me | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | scripts/check-spelling.py | 17 | CODE | |
| LOW | scripts/check-workflows.py | 18 | CODE | |
| LOW | scripts/macos-bundle.py | 48 | CODE | |
| LOW | scripts/lib/toolcache.py | 16 | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | scripts/extract-changelog-from-metainfo.py | 42 | def extract_changelog_from_metainfo(metainfo_file: str) -> list[Release]: | CODE |
| LOW | src/contour/test/QmlComponents_test.cpp | 2935 | " function onCommandPaletteRequested() { paletteItem.open(); }\n" | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | test/display-modes.sh | 32 | # Check if we got the terminator | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | …c/contour/cli/shell-integration/shell-integration.bash | 56 | # WARNING: This variable is no longer used and should not be relied upon. | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | metainfo.xml | 94 | <!-- unreleased: TODO: Don't forget to add date attribute to it. --> | CODE |