Computing-focused community centered around link aggregation and discussion
This report presents the forensic synthetic code analysis of lobsters/lobsters, a Ruby project with 4,759 GitHub stars. SynthScan v2.0 examined 31,395 lines of code across 512 source files, recording 85 pattern matches distributed across 7 syntactic categories. The overall adjusted score of 3.9 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).
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 85 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | config/initializers/wrap_parameters.rb | 5 | # This file contains settings for ActionController::ParamsWrapper which | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | config/initializers/permissions_policy.rb | 5 | # Define an application-wide HTTP permissions policy. For further | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | config/initializers/content_security_policy.rb | 5 | # Define an application-wide content security policy. | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | spec/rails_helper.rb | 3 | # This file is copied to spec/ when you run 'rails generate rspec:install' | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | spec/requests/search_spec.rb | 6 | # Create a comment we can search for. Rspec wraps tests in individual transactions, and | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | db/schema.rb | 1 | # This file is auto-generated from the current state of the database. Instead | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | db/schema.rb | 5 | # This file is the source Rails uses to define your schema when running `bin/rails | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | db/queue_schema.rb | 1 | # This file is auto-generated from the current state of the database. Instead | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | db/queue_schema.rb | 5 | # This file is the source Rails uses to define your schema when running `bin/rails | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | db/rack_attack_schema.rb | 1 | # This file is auto-generated from the current state of the database. Instead | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | db/rack_attack_schema.rb | 5 | # This file is the source Rails uses to define your schema when running `bin/rails | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | db/cache_schema.rb | 1 | # This file is auto-generated from the current state of the database. Instead | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | db/cache_schema.rb | 5 | # This file is the source Rails uses to define your schema when running `bin/rails | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | .database_consistency.ignore.yml | 1 | # This file lists exceptions for database_consistency checks at build time. | COMMENT |
| LOW | .database_consistency.ignore.yml | 21 | # a `has_many` with `dependent: :nullify` (Story#merged_stories), and a case | COMMENT |
| LOW | app/models/comment.rb | 341 | last_byte = [id & 0xff].pack("C") | COMMENT |
| LOW | config/locales/en.yml | 1 | # Files in the config/locales directory are used for internationalization | COMMENT |
| LOW | config/environments/production.rb | 41 | # Enable serving of images, stylesheets, and JavaScripts from an asset server. | COMMENT |
| LOW | config/environments/test.rb | 1 | # typed: false | COMMENT |
| LOW | config/initializers/application_controller_renderer.rb | 1 | # typed: false | COMMENT |
| LOW | config/initializers/backtrace_silencers.rb | 1 | # typed: false | COMMENT |
| LOW | config/initializers/mime_types.rb | 1 | # typed: false | COMMENT |
| LOW | config/initializers/session_store.rb | 1 | # typed: false | COMMENT |
| LOW | config/initializers/wrap_parameters.rb | 1 | # typed: false | COMMENT |
| LOW | config/initializers/assets.rb | 1 | # typed: false | COMMENT |
| LOW | config/initializers/page_caching_monkeypatch.rb | 1 | # https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters/issues/1825 | COMMENT |
| LOW | config/initializers/permissions_policy.rb | 1 | # typed: false | COMMENT |
| LOW | config/initializers/rack_attack.rb | 1 | # typed: false | COMMENT |
| LOW | config/initializers/inflections.rb | 1 | # typed: false | COMMENT |
| LOW | spec/spec_helper.rb | 1 | # typed: false | COMMENT |
| LOW | spec/spec_helper.rb | 21 | RSpec.configure do |config| | COMMENT |
| LOW | spec/spec_helper.rb | 41 | # `true` in RSpec 4. | COMMENT |
| LOW | spec/spec_helper.rb | 61 | # # metadata: `fit`, `fdescribe` and `fcontext`, respectively. | COMMENT |
| LOW | spec/spec_helper.rb | 81 | # # unless a formatter has already been configured | COMMENT |
| LOW | spec/css_widely_available_spec.rb | 61 | # baseline "high" == "widely available" | COMMENT |
| LOW | spec/models/search_parser_spec.rb | 1 | # typed: false | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/stale.yml | 21 | close-pr-message: "This PR was closed because it was open for 40 days with no activity. Please reopen when you'd | COMMENT |
| LOW | db/schema.rb | 1 | # This file is auto-generated from the current state of the database. Instead | COMMENT |
| LOW | db/queue_schema.rb | 1 | # This file is auto-generated from the current state of the database. Instead | COMMENT |
| LOW | db/rack_attack_schema.rb | 1 | # This file is auto-generated from the current state of the database. Instead | COMMENT |
| LOW | db/cache_schema.rb | 1 | # This file is auto-generated from the current state of the database. Instead | COMMENT |
| LOW | db/migrate/20250818182728_add_fts_tables.rb | 1 | # If you are reading this file because Rails complains that there isn't a | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | CONTRIBUTING.md | 87 | lobsters$ rails fake_data | CODE |
| LOW | CONTRIBUTING.md | 90 | The default password for users generated by `fake_data` is `"fake"`. | CODE |
| LOW | spec/rails_helper.rb | 39 | # 'placeholder' is so factory_bot can instantiate valid Story objects, but tests must replace | COMMENT |
| LOW | spec/rails_helper.rb | 41 | c.tags.create!([{tag: "placeholder"}, {tag: "tag1"}, {tag: "tag2"}]) | CODE |
| LOW | spec/slow/fake_data_spec.rb | 7 | describe "fake_data" do | CODE |
| LOW | spec/features/edit_hat_spec.rb | 6 | let!(:hat) { create(:hat, link: "foo@bar.com") } | CODE |
| LOW | spec/features/hats_spec.rb | 8 | hat = create(:hat, link: "foo@bar.com") | CODE |
| LOW | spec/features/hats_spec.rb | 20 | hat = create(:hat, link: "foo@bar.com") | CODE |
| LOW | spec/models/mastodon_app_spec.rb | 18 | expect(MastodonApp.sanitized_instance_name("user@example.com")).to eq("example.com") | CODE |
| LOW | spec/models/hat_spec.rb | 22 | hat = build(:hat, link: "foo@bar.com") | CODE |
| LOW | spec/models/search_parser_spec.rb | 136 | it("doesn't parse emails") { expect(sp.user).to_not parse("user@example.com") } | CODE |
| LOW | spec/models/user_spec.rb | 72 | create(:user, email: "user@example.com") | CODE |
| LOW | spec/models/user_spec.rb | 75 | expect { create(:user, email: "user@example.com") }.to raise_error | CODE |
| LOW | spec/factories/story.rb | 8 | tags { Tag.where(tag: "placeholder") } | CODE |
| LOW | docs/SETUP_DEVCONTAINER.md | 22 | * Create the fake data by running `rails fake_data` | COMMENT |
| LOW | docs/setup_with_docker.md | 23 | * Create the fake data by running `docker compose run app rails fake_data` | COMMENT |
| LOW | .devcontainer/devcontainer.json | 32 | "postStartCommand": "bin/rails fake_data" | CODE |
| LOW | db/seeds.rb | 41 | Rails.logger.debug "If this is a dev environment, you probably want to run `rails fake_data`" | CODE |
| LOW | extras/mastodon.rb | 96 | # returns { "user@example.com" => 123 } for remove_list_accounts call | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | app/models/user.rb | 496 | def initiate_password_reset_for_ip(ip) | CODE |
| LOW | app/models/story.rb | 662 | def description_or_story_text(chars = 0) | CODE |
| LOW | app/jobs/notify_mod_mail_message_job.rb | 12 | def deliver_mod_mail_message_notifications(mod_mail_message, recipient) | CODE |
| LOW | app/jobs/notify_message_job.rb | 10 | def deliver_message_notifications(message) | CODE |
| LOW | app/jobs/notify_comment_job.rb | 10 | def deliver_comment_notifications(comment) | CODE |
| LOW | app/jobs/notify_comment_job.rb | 15 | def deliver_mention_notifications(comment, notified) | CODE |
| LOW | app/jobs/notify_comment_job.rb | 68 | def deliver_reply_notifications(comment) | CODE |
| LOW | app/controllers/home_controller.rb | 384 | def tags_with_description_for_rss(tags) | CODE |
| LOW | app/helpers/users_helper.rb | 8 | def stories_submitted_content(user, showing_user) | CODE |
| LOW | app/helpers/application_helper.rb | 47 | def excerpt_fragment_around_link(html, url) | CODE |
| LOW | app/helpers/application_helper.rb | 130 | def page_numbers_for_pagination(max, cur) | CODE |
| LOW | lib/time_series.rb | 55 | def data_with_extrapolated_month(data) | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | app/models/vote.rb | 26 | # don't forget to edit the explanations on /about | COMMENT |
| LOW | app/models/vote.rb | 26 | # don't forget to edit the explanations on /about | COMMENT |
| LOW | app/models/vote.rb | 39 | # don't forget to edit the explanations on /about | COMMENT |
| LOW | app/models/vote.rb | 39 | # don't forget to edit the explanations on /about | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | spec/spec_helper.rb | 56 | # with RSpec, but feel free to customize to your heart's content. | COMMENT |
| LOW | .github/workflows/check.yml | 1 | # If any steps below are added or changed, make sure to keep build.rake in sync. | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | bin/stackprof-flamegraph.pl | 8 | # this file is here to facilitate running it. | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | bin/stackprof-gprof2dot.py | 8 | # this file is here to facilitate running it. | COMMENT |
| LOW | spec/models/story_spec.rb | 152 | # we can't seemingly just set body, so... | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | app/models/notification.rb | 47 | # Check if this is a mention notification | COMMENT |
| LOW | app/jobs/restic_job.rb | 6 | # Check if the shared directory exists | COMMENT |
| LOW | config/environments/production.rb | 96 | # Set this to true and configure the email server for immediate delivery to raise delivery errors. | COMMENT |