Miller is like awk, sed, cut, join, and sort for name-indexed data such as CSV, TSV, and tabular JSON
This report presents the forensic synthetic code analysis of johnkerl/miller, a Go project with 9,945 GitHub stars. SynthScan v2.0 examined 194,132 lines of code across 752 source files, recording 410 pattern matches distributed across 11 syntactic categories. The overall adjusted score of 3.2 places this repository in the Likely human-written 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 410 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM⚡ | man/mkman.rb | 3 | # ================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM⚡ | man/mkman.rb | 12 | # ================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM⚡ | man/mkman.rb | 14 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | man/mkman.rb | 126 | # ================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM⚡ | man/mkman.rb | 162 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM⚡ | man/mkman.rb | 172 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM⚡ | man/mkman.rb | 182 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | man/mkman.rb | 193 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | man/mkman.rb | 208 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | man/mkman.rb | 219 | # ================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 48 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 50 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 61 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 63 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 156 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 158 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 206 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 208 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 326 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 328 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 391 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 393 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 463 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 465 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 496 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 498 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 565 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 567 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 622 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 624 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 692 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 694 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 735 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 737 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 789 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | tools/release.sh | 791 | # ============================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | python/sketch.py | 9 | # ================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | python/sketch.py | 30 | # ================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | python/sketch.py | 65 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------- | STRING |
| MEDIUM | python/sketch.py | 235 | # ================================================================ | STRING |
| MEDIUM | python/sketch.py | 256 | # ================================================================ | STRING |
| MEDIUM | python/sketch.py | 293 | # ================================================================ | STRING |
| MEDIUM | python/sketch.py | 333 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------- | STRING |
| MEDIUM | python/sketch.py | 358 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------- | STRING |
| MEDIUM | python/sketch.py | 396 | # ================================================================ | STRING |
| MEDIUM | python/sketch.py | 419 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------- | STRING |
| MEDIUM | python/sketch.py | 436 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------- | STRING |
| MEDIUM | python/sketch.py | 460 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------- | STRING |
| MEDIUM | python/sketch.py | 472 | # ================================================================ | STRING |
| MEDIUM | python/sketch.py | 606 | # ================================================================ | STRING |
| MEDIUM | python/sketch.py | 624 | # ================================================================ | STRING |
| MEDIUM | python/sketch.py | 641 | # ================================================================ | STRING |
| MEDIUM | docs/build-epub.sh | 3 | # ================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | docs/build-epub.sh | 16 | # ================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM⚡ | docs/src/mk-func-info.rb | 3 | # ================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM⚡ | docs/src/mk-func-info.rb | 6 | # ================================================================ | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM⚡ | docs/src/mk-func-info.rb | 8 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | docs/src/mk-func-info.rb | 65 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | docs/src/mk-func-info.rb | 113 | # ---------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | docs/src/dkvp-examples.md | 26 | # ================================================================ | COMMENT |
| 42 more matches not shown… | ||||
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | regression_test.go | 21 | // verbosityLevel = 3 for all cases is probably too much output to be | COMMENT |
| LOW | man/mkman.rb | 1 | #!/usr/bin/env ruby | COMMENT |
| LOW | cmd/experiments/cli_parser/msys2in.sh | 1 | /home/kerlj/git/miller/experiments/cli-parser/cliparse.exe '$c=$a."bbb"' | COMMENT |
| LOW | cmd/experiments/line_parser/splitter.go | 1 | package main | COMMENT |
| LOW | cmd/experiments/line_parser/splitter.go | 21 | // Otherwise, the Scanner advances the input. If the token is not nil, the | COMMENT |
| LOW | tools/release.sh | 1 | #!/usr/bin/env bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | tools/release.sh | 21 | # docs | COMMENT |
| LOW | python/sketch.py | 1 | #!/usr/bin/python | COMMENT |
| LOW | docs/build-epub.sh | 1 | #!/bin/bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | docs/src/dkvp-examples.md | 21 | Here are the I/O routines: | COMMENT |
| LOW | docs/src/dkvp-examples.md | 41 | # >>> map | COMMENT |
| LOW | docs/src/dkvp-examples.md | 161 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | docs/src/expo-sample.sh | 1 | # Generate 100,000 pairs of independent and identically distributed | COMMENT |
| LOW | docs/src/polyglot-dkvp-io/dkvp_io.rb | 1 | #!/usr/bin/env ruby | COMMENT |
| LOW | docs/src/polyglot-dkvp-io/dkvp_io.py | 1 | #!/usr/bin/env python | COMMENT |
| LOW | docs/src/ngrams/ngrams.sh | 1 | #!/bin/bash | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/original/tn.rb | 1 | #!/usr/bin/ruby | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/original/cutgo.go | 61 | // TIME IN SECONDS 0.221 -- cutgo ccode,milex,year,cinc ../c/nmc1.dkvp | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/original/cutgo.go | 81 | // $ repeat 10 justtime cutgo ccode,milex,year,cinc ../c/nmc1.dkvp > /dev/null | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/original/cutgo.go | 101 | if present { | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/original/cutgo.go | 141 | // TIME IN SECONDS 3.821 -- cutgo ccode,milex,year,cinc ../c/nmc1.dkvp | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/original/cutgo.go | 161 | // TIME IN SECONDS 3.539 -- cutgo ccode,milex,year,cinc ../c/nmc1.dkvp | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/original/cutgo.go | 181 | // TIME IN SECONDS 4.747 -- cutgo ccode,milex,year,cinc ../c/nmc1.dkvp | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/optimized/cutcpp.cpp | 1 | // CLI: step (1-6) arg1, comma-separated field names arg2, filenames arg3+. | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml | 1 | # For most projects, this workflow file will not need changing; you simply need | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml | 41 | # Initializes the CodeQL tools for scanning. | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/codespell.yml | 41 | # WARNING: Trying next encoding "iso-8859-1" | COMMENT |
| LOW | data/generators/abixy.c | 21 | // a=pan,b=pan,i=1,x=0.3467901443380824,y=0.7268028627434533 | COMMENT |
| LOW | data/generators/randuv-chomped.c | 1 | #include <stdio.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | data/generators/randuv-chomped.c | 21 | // oooooooo----------------+ | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/dkvpx/dkvpx_reader.go | 1 | // Package dkvpx reads DKVPX records: comma-delimited key=value pairs with | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/types/doc.go | 1 | // Package types contains the implementation of the Mlrval datatype which is | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/auxents/hex.go | 1 | package auxents | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/repl/dsl.go | 1 | // This is the handler for taking DSL statements typed in interactively by the | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/repl/session.go | 1 | // Top-level handler for a REPL session, including setup/construction, and | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/repl/entry.go | 1 | // This is the shell command-line entry point to the Miller REPL command line. | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/repl/verbs.go | 521 | // | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/completion/completion.go | 1 | // Package completion implements shell tab-completion for Miller. | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/completion/verbflags.go | 1 | // Per-verb flag discovery for shell completion. | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/completion/shell_smoke_test.go | 1 | //go:build !windows | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/mcp/mcp_main.go | 1 | // Entrypoint for `mlr mcp`: a Model Context Protocol server exposing Miller | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/mcp/mcp_main.go | 41 | // serverConfig carries the `mlr mcp` command-line options into the tool | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/regtest/regtester.go | 1 | // Logic for executing regression tests via 'mlr regtest'. | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/regtest/regtester.go | 21 | // in test/input/. | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/regtest/regtester.go | 41 | // NR=1,a=pan,b=pan | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/regtest/regtester.go | 381 | // case. | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/registry/registry.go | 1 | // Package registry is the single source of truth for the names of Miller's | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/help/entry_which.go | 1 | // mlr which -- intent-to-capability router for AI agents and interactive users. | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/help/entry.go | 141 | // flag-section named "CSV-only flags", etc. Here we can't key in the names | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/terminals/help/entry_json.go | 1 | // Machine-readable (JSON) help, for `mlr help --as-json` and friends. | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/mlrval/mlrval_collections.go | 1 | // ABOUT ARRAY/MAP INDEXING | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/mlrval/mlrval_collections.go | 21 | // | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/mlrval/mlrval_collections.go | 41 | // o No zero index: AWK uses $0 like Miller uses $*, to refer | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/mlrval/mlrval_collections.go | 101 | n := int(len(*array)) | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/mlrval/mlrval_collections.go | 121 | // -7 -2 false | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/mlrval/mlrval_collections.go | 201 | // | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/mlrval/mlrval_collections.go | 221 | // the array by one. | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/mlrval/mlrval_new.go | 201 | } | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/mlrval/mlrval_new.go | 241 | return &Mlrval{ | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/mlrval/mlrmap_json.go | 21 | buffer.WriteString(s) | COMMENT |
| 211 more matches not shown… | ||||
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW⚡ | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutcpp.cpp | 51 | // Step 2: line to map | COMMENT |
| LOW⚡ | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutcpp.cpp | 60 | // Step 3: map-to-map transform | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutcpp.cpp | 83 | // Step 6: write to stdout | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutgo.go | 65 | // Step 2: line to map | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutgo.go | 78 | // Step 3: map-to-map transform (keep include order for output) | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutgo.go | 108 | // Step 6: write to stdout | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutrs.rs | 70 | // Step 2: line to map | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutrs.rs | 85 | // Step 3: map-to-map transform (newmap for step 4 lookup; order from include_fields) | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutrs.rs | 113 | // Step 6: write to stdout | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/optimized/cutgo.go | 105 | // Step 2: line to map | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/optimized/cutgo.go | 119 | // Step 3: map-to-map transform | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/optimized/cutgo.go | 149 | // Step 6: send to writer | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW⚡ | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutcpp.cpp | 51 | // Step 2: line to map | COMMENT |
| LOW⚡ | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutcpp.cpp | 60 | // Step 3: map-to-map transform | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutcpp.cpp | 83 | // Step 6: write to stdout | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutgo.go | 65 | // Step 2: line to map | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutgo.go | 78 | // Step 3: map-to-map transform (keep include order for output) | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutgo.go | 108 | // Step 6: write to stdout | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutrs.rs | 70 | // Step 2: line to map | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutrs.rs | 85 | // Step 3: map-to-map transform (newmap for step 4 lookup; order from include_fields) | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/naive/cutrs.rs | 113 | // Step 6: write to stdout | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/optimized/cutgo.go | 105 | // Step 2: line to map | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/optimized/cutgo.go | 119 | // Step 3: map-to-map transform | COMMENT |
| LOW | scripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/optimized/cutgo.go | 149 | // Step 6: send to writer | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | pkg/cli/flag_types.go | 416 | // * Help string is "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/cli/flag_types.go | 416 | // * Help string is "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/cli/flag_types.go | 430 | // --foo or -f {bar} Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/cli/flag_types.go | 430 | // --foo or -f {bar} Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/cli/flag_types.go | 443 | // Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing | COMMENT |
| LOW | pkg/cli/flag_types.go | 443 | // Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HIGH | pkg/transformers/doc.go | 2 | // output records as requested by the user (sort, filter, etc.). | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | pkg/mlrval/mlrval_collections.go | 696 | // CollectionFold multiplexes ArrayFold or MapFold. The panic here is not robust, but is done to | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | pkg/dsl/cst/udf.go | 291 | // Definitely a Miller internal coding error if the user put 'return x' in | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | python/sketch.py | 66 | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | docs/src/mk-func-info.rb | 55 | def name_to_display_name_and_link_name(name) | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | …ripts/perf/multilanguage-timings/original/mand/mand.py | 3 | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | tools/release.sh | 5 | # Usage: | COMMENT |