Repository Analysis

paulirish/dotfiles

paul's fish, bash, git, etc config files. good stuff.

5.9 Low AI signal View on GitHub

Analysis Overview

This report presents the forensic synthetic code analysis of paulirish/dotfiles, a Shell project with 4,352 GitHub stars. SynthScan v2.0 examined 10,742 lines of code across 59 source files, recording 38 pattern matches distributed across 10 syntactic categories. The overall adjusted score of 5.9 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).

5.9
Adjusted Score
5.9
Raw Score
100%
Time Factor
2026-07-12
Last Push
4.4K
Stars
Shell
Language
10.7K
Lines of Code
59
Files
38
Pattern Hits
2026-07-14
Scan Date
0.02
HC Hit Rate

What These Metrics Mean

Adjusted Score
Primary synthetic code indicator. Raw score normalised per 1,000 lines of code and multiplied by the temporal discount factor. This is the definitive comparative metric — use it to rank repositories by AI authorship density.
Raw Score
The unmodified sum of all severity-weighted, context-multiplied pattern match scores before temporal discounting. Reflects the absolute signal strength independent of when the repository was last active.
Time Factor
The temporal discount multiplier (0–100%) applied to the raw score. Repositories last updated before ChatGPT's launch (Nov 2022) receive a 5% factor. Full signal is only assigned to repositories active in the post-adoption era (Jan 2024+).
Pattern Hits
Total count of individual pattern matches across all files and categories. A high hit count with a low score may indicate a very large codebase with isolated AI snippets; a low count with a high score indicates dense, concentrated AI signatures.
HC Hit Rate
High+Critical pattern hits per file, averaged across the repository. This orthogonal signal catches repositories where a few files are densely packed with high-severity AI tells — a strong indicator even when the normalised score appears moderate due to codebase size.
Lines of Code / Files
Total lines and files analysed. The scanner examines 94 file extensions. These denominators are used to normalise the score, enabling fair comparison between repositories of vastly different sizes.

Score History

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.

No multi-scan history yet — run the scanner again to build trend data.

Severity Breakdown

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.

CRITICAL 0HIGH 1MEDIUM 9LOW 28

Directory Score Breakdown

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.

Pattern Findings

The scanner identified 38 distinct pattern matches across 10 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.

Over-Commented Block22 hits · 22 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
LOW.git-completion.bash1# bash/zsh completion support for core Git.COMMENT
LOW.git-completion.bash21# *) file paths within current working directory and indexCOMMENT
LOW.git-completion.bash41# scripts, define a function of the form '_git_${subcommand}' while replacingCOMMENT
LOW.git-completion.bash61# _git_log and __gitk_main.COMMENT
LOW.git-completion.bash81# When set to "1" suggest all options, including options which areCOMMENT
LOW.git-completion.bash261#COMMENT
LOW.git-completion.bash281# This function can be used to access a tokenized list of wordsCOMMENT
LOW.git-completion.bash381COMMENT
LOW.git-completion.bash481 unset ${(M)${(k)parameters[@]}:#__gitcomp_builtin_*} 2>/dev/nullCOMMENT
LOW.git-completion.bash581 compopt -o filenames +o nospace 2>/dev/null ||COMMENT
LOW.git-completion.bash961COMMENT
LOW.git-completion.bash3321 _found=1COMMENT
LOW.git-completion.bash3341 # on paths that exist in the current working tree,COMMENT
LOW.git-completion.bash3381 # Since sparse-index is limited to cone-mode, in non-cone-mode theCOMMENT
LOW.git-completion.bash3401 # completion will actually complete an entry and let us move on toCOMMENT
LOW.git-completion.bash3421 # the user wants all '.config' files throughout theCOMMENT
LOWsetup-a-new-machine.sh61COMMENT
LOWsetup-a-new-machine.sh221COMMENT
LOWsetup-chromium.sh1COMMENT
LOW.eslintrc.js1module.exports = {COMMENT
LOWbin/render-streaming-markdown.ts41// // Flush everything up to itCOMMENT
LOWbin/start-devtools-servers.sh21# ~/Library/Workflows/Applications/MyLoginStuff-streamdeck-displayswap-etc.automator.appCOMMENT
Self-Referential Comments3 hits · 9 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
MEDIUM.git-completion.bash254# The following function is based on code from:COMMENT
MEDIUM.git-completion.bash486# This function is equivalent toCOMMENT
MEDIUM.git-completion.bash528# This function is equivalent toCOMMENT
Redundant / Tautological Comments4 hits · 8 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
LOWsymlink-setup.sh111 # Print output in redCOMMENT
LOWsymlink-setup.sh116 # Print output in purpleCOMMENT
LOWsymlink-setup.sh121 # Print output in yellowCOMMENT
LOWsymlink-setup.sh135 # Print output in greenCOMMENT
Synthetic Comment Markers1 hit · 8 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
HIGH.git-completion.bash1704# logic, as requested by the user.COMMENT
Slop Phrases2 hits · 6 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
MEDIUMchromium.sh51# you can also add any extra args: `cr --user-data-dir=/tmp/lol123"COMMENT
MEDIUM.git-completion.bash32# If you use complex aliases of form '!f() { ... }; f', you can use the nullCOMMENT
AI Slop Vocabulary2 hits · 4 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
MEDIUMpersonal_mcp/get_unresolved_comments.test.ts29 "Unresolved comments for CL 12345:\n\n1. /PATCHSET_LEVEL\nI'm fairly certain this also adds support for origCODE
MEDIUMpersonal_mcp/get_unresolved_comments.test.ts63 return ')]}\'\n{"/PATCHSET_LEVEL":[{"author":{"_account_id":1118499,"name":"Paul Irish","email":"paulirish@chromium.orCODE
Modern AI Meta-Vocabulary1 hit · 3 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
MEDIUMagents/skills/qmd-expert/SKILL.md90# using the -l flag (e.g. -l 20) to keep the context window lean.COMMENT
Excessive Try-Catch Wrapping1 hit · 2 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
MEDIUMbin/fish_profile_to_flamegraph.py60 print(f"Error: Profiling output file not found at {profiling_filepath}")CODE
Unused Imports1 hit · 1 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
LOWbin/fish_profile_to_flamegraph.py4CODE
Deep Nesting1 hit · 1 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
LOWbin/fish_profile_to_flamegraph.py19CODE