p5.js is a client-side JS platform that empowers artists, designers, students, and anyone to learn to code and express themselves creatively on the web. It is based on the core principles of Processing. Looking for p5.js 2.0? http://beta.p5js.org
This report summarizes scanner evidence for processing/p5.js, a JavaScript project with 24,281 GitHub stars. SynthScan examined 380,599 lines of code across 1465 source files, recording 130 pattern matches distributed across 12 syntactic categories. The legacy adjusted pattern signal is 0.8 (Low pattern signal); it is not an authorship estimate.
Use the findings to ask whether maintainers can explain intent, verify dependencies, simplify unnecessary scaffolding, and focus review effort. Risk Payload v1 adds ownership, supply-chain, over-engineering, and review-effort vectors when available. These are prompts for human verification, not probabilities, security findings, or measured maintenance costs.
Use each vector to guide manual verification of the underlying findings.
Payload schema: 1.0.0 · Engine: 2.0.0 · Scoring: heuristic-density-v1 · Scan date: 2026-10-31.
Can maintainers explain intent, assumptions, and trade-offs? 91 finding(s).
Are imports declared and package/API names verified? 39 finding(s).
Are wrappers, guards, and repeated structures necessary? 32 finding(s).
Which changes need focused human review? 130 finding(s).
This chart tracks the legacy adjusted pattern score across scan runs. Changes can reflect source changes, scan coverage, or detector/scoring versions; they do not measure AI adoption or prove that a team refactored code. Compare runs only when their scoring versions are compatible. The dashed line tracks the raw pattern-hit count.
Groups findings by configured severity weight. Severity is not a confidence estimate, security rating, or proof that a package is missing. Verify imports against the project's manifests and inspect each finding in its local design context.
This horizontal bar chart shows where configured pattern scores accumulate across directories. Treat the bars as locations to inspect, not as evidence of authorship or code quality. Use the file-level findings to decide whether a directory needs a focused ownership, dependency, complexity, or review check.
The scanner identified 130 distinct pattern matches across 12 syntactic categories. Each entry below represents a discrete location in the source code where the engine recorded a detector match to inspect in context. 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 configured finding weight (CRITICAL / HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW). The Context column identifies whether the match occurred inside executable code, an inline comment, or a string literal — legacy comment-context matches receive a ×1.5 score weight. The ⚡ bolt icon marks clustered matches: three or more patterns within a 10-line window, each receiving an additional ×1.5 density multiplier under the legacy scoring model.
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HIGH | test/manual-test-examples/p5.Table/matchRow/sketch.js | 22 | print(result.getString('name')); // Prints "Snake" | CODE |
| HIGH | test/manual-test-examples/p5.Table/getObject/sketch.js | 21 | print('Without a header column:', table.getObject()); | CODE |
| HIGH | test/manual-test-examples/p5.Table/getObject/sketch.js | 22 | print('With a header column:', table.getObject('name')); | CODE |
| HIGH | test/manual-test-examples/p5.Table/findRows/sketch.js | 27 | print(rows[i].getString('name') + ': ' + rows[i].getString('type')); | CODE |
| HIGH | test/manual-test-examples/p5.Table/matchRows/sketch.js | 27 | print(rows[i].getString('name') + ': ' + rows[i].getString('type')); | CODE |
| HIGH⚡ | test/manual-test-examples/p5.Table/trim/sketch.js | 21 | print(table.getColumn('name')); | CODE |
| HIGH⚡ | test/manual-test-examples/p5.Table/trim/sketch.js | 22 | print(table.getColumn('type')); | CODE |
| HIGH⚡ | test/manual-test-examples/p5.Table/trim/sketch.js | 25 | print(table.getColumn('name')); | CODE |
| HIGH⚡ | test/manual-test-examples/p5.Table/trim/sketch.js | 26 | print(table.getColumn('type')); | CODE |
| HIGH⚡ | …t/manual-test-examples/p5.Table/removeTokens/sketch.js | 21 | print(table.getColumn('name')); | CODE |
| HIGH⚡ | …t/manual-test-examples/p5.Table/removeTokens/sketch.js | 22 | print(table.getColumn('type')); | CODE |
| HIGH⚡ | …t/manual-test-examples/p5.Table/removeTokens/sketch.js | 26 | print(table.getColumn('name')); | CODE |
| HIGH⚡ | …t/manual-test-examples/p5.Table/removeTokens/sketch.js | 27 | print(table.getColumn('type')); | CODE |
| HIGH | test/manual-test-examples/p5.Table/getColumn/sketch.js | 21 | print(table.getColumn('name')); | CODE |
| HIGH | …ual-test-examples/addons/p5.sound/peakDetect/sketch.js | 32 | print('source duration: ' + src_length); | CODE |
| HIGH | …manual-test-examples/async/loadJSON_callback/sketch.js | 46 | print(result); // result is ready! | CODE |
| HIGH⚡ | …ual-test-examples/async/loadStrings_callback/sketch.js | 18 | print('In setup(), there are ' + result.length + ' lines in the result'); | CODE |
| HIGH⚡ | …ual-test-examples/async/loadStrings_callback/sketch.js | 27 | print( | CODE |
| HIGH⚡ | …ual-test-examples/async/loadStrings_callback/sketch.js | 30 | print('Click the mouse to display a different random line!'); | CODE |
| HIGH⚡ | …al-test-examples/async/loadStrings_manyLines/sketch.js | 21 | print('In setup(), there are ' + result.length + ' lines in the result'); | CODE |
| HIGH⚡ | …al-test-examples/async/loadStrings_manyLines/sketch.js | 30 | print( | CODE |
| HIGH⚡ | …al-test-examples/async/loadStrings_manyLines/sketch.js | 33 | print('Click the mouse to display a different random line!'); | CODE |
| HIGH | …nual-test-examples/async/loadStrings_preload/sketch.js | 28 | print( | CODE |
| HIGH | …nual-test-examples/async/loadStrings_preload/sketch.js | 31 | print('Click the mouse to display a different random line!'); | CODE |
| HIGH | …l-test-examples/learningprocessing/chp6/example_6_7.js | 29 | print(' The mouse was pressed! '); | CODE |
| HIGH | …l-test-examples/learningprocessing/chp6/example_6_4.js | 13 | print(x); | CODE |
| HIGH | …/learningprocessing/chp10/example_10_4/example_10_4.js | 23 | print(' 5 seconds have passed! '); | CODE |
| HIGH | …/learningprocessing/chp10/example_10_9/example_10_9.js | 32 | print(' 2 seconds have passed! '); | CODE |
| HIGH | …l-test-examples/learningprocessing/chp3/example_3_6.js | 48 | print('Take me to your leader!'); | CODE |
| HIGH | …l-test-examples/learningprocessing/chp4/example_4_5.js | 25 | print(key); | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | test/unit/io/saveTable.js | 61 | test('should download a file with expected contents (html)', async () => { | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/unit/io/saveTable.js | 81 | // // while displaying. But they will still remain a part of the parsed DOM and hence must be removed. | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/unit/image/loading.js | 1 | import { mockP5, mockP5Prototype, httpMock } from '../../js/mocks'; | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/unit/image/loading.js | 21 | // sketch.clear(); | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/unit/image/loading.js | 101 | assert.isTrue(pImg instanceof mockP5.Image); | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/unit/image/loading.js | 141 | // }).then(function() { | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/unit/image/loading.js | 201 | // myp5.loadImage('unit/assets/target.gif', resolve, reject); | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/unit/dom/p5.Element.js | 1 | // import p5 from '../../../src/app.js'; | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/unit/dom/dom.js | 501 | }); | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/unit/dom/dom.js | 981 | assert.instanceOf(testElement.elt, HTMLInputElement); | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/unit/dom/dom.js | 1001 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | test/unit/dom/p5.MediaElement.js | 61 | assert.instanceOf(sourceEl, HTMLSourceElement); | COMMENT |
| LOW | test/unit/dom/p5.MediaElement.js | 221 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | test/manual-test-examples/p5.Table/saveTable/sketch.js | 21 | save(table, 'animals.csv'); | COMMENT |
| LOW | …manual-test-examples/async/loadJSON_callback/sketch.js | 1 | // This example gets weather for any city based on user input. | COMMENT |
| LOW | …manual-test-examples/webgl/geometryImmediate/sketch.js | 61 | // QUAD_STRIP and TRIANGLE_STRIP need the vertices of each shared side | COMMENT |
| LOW | …l-test-examples/learningprocessing/chp3/example_3_1.js | 1 | // Learning Processing | COMMENT |
| LOW | …/manual-test-examples/saveData/saveJSONArray/sketch.js | 21 | } | COMMENT |
| LOW | …ples/tutorials/Integrating-other-libraries/0/sketch.js | 1 | // This shows an example of using the "Api example" code from | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/shape/2d_primitives.js | 41 | start = start - constants.TWO_PI * Math.floor(start / constants.TWO_PI); | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/core/main.js | 301 | // Record the time when the draw loop starts so that millis() starts at 0 | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/core/p5.Renderer3D.js | 1621 | // We need to explicitly set uSampler back to an empty texture here. | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/core/p5.Renderer2D.js | 861 | this.drawingContext.translate(x, y); | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/friendly_errors/stacktrace.js | 1 | /** | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/friendly_errors/stacktrace.js | 341 | }; | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/friendly_errors/fes_core.js | 321 | // setup/draw are more likely to be defined due to JS function hoisting.) | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/friendly_errors/param_validator.js | 41 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | src/friendly_errors/param_validator.js | 361 | item => !z.validate(item, undefined) | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/webgpu/p5.RendererWebGPU.js | 2701 | ////////////////////////////////////////////// | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/webgpu/p5.RendererWebGPU.js | 3441 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | src/webgl/p5.Texture.js | 241 | updated = true; | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/webgl/p5.Camera.js | 1601 | // prepare eye vector and center vector of argument cameras. | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/webgl/p5.Camera.js | 1661 | // This matrix represents the difference between the two. | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/math/Matrices/MatrixNumjs.js | 921 | // return _makeFrustum(xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax, znear, zfar); | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/math/Matrices/MatrixNumjs.js | 941 | // } | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/math/Matrices/Matrix.js | 2061 | // return _makeFrustum(xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax, znear, zfar); | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/math/Matrices/Matrix.js | 2081 | // } | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/image/loading_displaying.js | 701 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_transpiler.js | 721 | ) { | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | visual-report.js | 164 | function createActualScreenshotMap() { | CODE |
| LOW | test/unit/core/structure.js | 103 | function assertCanPreserveRenderState(work) { | CODE |
| LOW | test/unit/webgl/p5.RendererGL.js | 162 | function buildShaderWithTransforms() { | CODE |
| LOW | test/unit/webgl/p5.Framebuffer.js | 271 | function setupAndReturnFramebuffer() { | CODE |
| LOW | test/unit/webgl/p5.Geometry.js | 702 | function assertGeometryRendersMatch(drawGeometry, lightingModes) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/ir_dag.js | 13 | export function createDirectedAcyclicGraph() { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/ir_dag.js | 33 | export function getOrCreateNode(graph, node) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/ir_dag.js | 90 | export function propagateTypeToAssignOnUse( | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/p5.strands.js | 87 | function initPersistentStrandsContext(ctx) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/p5.strands.js | 93 | function createBuiltinGlobalsCache(dag) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/p5.strands.js | 159 | function resetTransientStrandsContext(ctx) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_transpiler.js | 88 | function collectUniformCallbackNames(ast) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_transpiler.js | 164 | function throwIfLoopProtectionInserted(ast) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_transpiler.js | 191 | function statementContainsStrandsControlFlow(stmt) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_transpiler.js | 328 | function replaceIdentifierReferences(node, oldName, newName) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_transpiler.js | 1695 | function functionHasSetInControlFlow(functionNode) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_transpiler.js | 1756 | function transformFunctionSetCalls(functionNode) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_transpiler.js | 1904 | function transformSetCallsInControlFlow(ast, names) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_transpiler.js | 1956 | function transformHelperFunctionEarlyReturns(ast, names) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_names.js | 23 | export function createStrandsShaderNameMap() { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_names.js | 45 | export function createStrandsShaderNameState(nextSuffix = 0) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_names.js | 98 | export function getOrCreateInternalShaderName( | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_names.js | 98 | export function getOrCreateInternalShaderName( | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/ir_builders.js | 97 | function resolveMatrixBinaryOpType(leftType, rightType, opCode) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/ir_builders.js | 1058 | export function createStructArrayElementProxy( | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_api.js | 66 | function getOrCreateUniformNode( | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_api.js | 117 | function installBuiltinGlobalAccessors(strandsContext) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_api.js | 201 | function installInstanceIndexAccessor(strandsContext) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_api.js | 295 | export function restoreTemporaryProperties(strandsContext) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_api.js | 400 | function rejectLoopExitWithHelpers(statement) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_api.js | 462 | function rejectInExpressionOperand(subject) { | CODE |
| LOW | src/strands/strands_api.js | 1887 | export function createShaderHooksFunctions(strandsContext, fn, shader) { | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | contributor_docs/decorators.md | 64 | ### Step 1: Define behavior | COMMENT |
| LOW | contributor_docs/decorators.md | 83 | ### Step 2: Register decorator | COMMENT |
| LOW⚡ | …tributor_docs/project_wrapups/ghalestrilo_gsoc_2020.md | 13 | ## Step 1: Studying UX | COMMENT |
| LOW⚡ | …tributor_docs/project_wrapups/ghalestrilo_gsoc_2020.md | 19 | ## Step 2: Feature Mapping | COMMENT |
| LOW⚡ | …tributor_docs/project_wrapups/ghalestrilo_gsoc_2020.md | 25 | ## Step 3: Prototyping | COMMENT |
| LOW | …tributor_docs/project_wrapups/ghalestrilo_gsoc_2020.md | 42 | ## Step 4: Coding! | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/type/p5.Font.js | 542 | // Step 2: build base flat geometry - single shape | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/type/p5.Font.js | 607 | // Step 5: Create extruded geometry | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRITICAL | src/webgl/GeometryBuilder.js | 65 | this.hasTransform = !this.renderer.states.uModelMatrix.mat4.every( | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | test/unit/type/p5.Font.js | 20 | const textString = 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.'; | CODE |
| LOW | test/unit/type/p5.Font.js | 20 | const textString = 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.'; | CODE |
| LOW | test/unit/dom/dom.js | 1059 | const testContent = 'Lorem ipsum'; | CODE |
| LOW | test/manual-test-examples/type/index.html | 55 | p.fill(120).textStyle(p.NORMAL).textSize(13.5).text('Simple long Text: Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the p | CODE |
| LOW⚡ | test/js/modernizr.js | 1563 | 'placeholder', | CODE |
| LOW⚡ | test/js/modernizr.js | 1564 | 'placeholder' in createElement('input') && | CODE |
| LOW⚡ | test/js/modernizr.js | 1565 | 'placeholder' in createElement('textarea') | CODE |
| LOW | test/js/modernizr.js | 2660 | 'Bacon ipsum dolor sit amet jerky velit in culpa hamburger et. Laborum dolor proident, enim dolore duis | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | test/js/modernizr.js | 2 | * https://modernizr.com/download/?-adownload-ambientlight-animation-apng-appearance-applicationcache-atobbtoa-audio-aud | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | src/friendly_errors/sketch_verifier.js | 210 | // TODO: think of a more robust way to get the user's code. Refer to | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | src/strands/ir_builders.js | 676 | // just used for booleans. Maybe this needs to be something more robust | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | .github/first-timers.yml | 1 | # You can create the issue in a different repo than where the problem is. Just make sure you installed the bot on the co | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | .github/first-timers.yml | 5 | # you can change the labels to suit your needs if "first-timers-only" is not what you are looking for. | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | src/webgl/material.js | 185 | * Here is a simple example with a simple vertex shader that applies whatevre | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HIGH | …ibutor_docs/project_wrapups/anaisgonzalez_gsoc_2021.md | 33 | For the complex example, I started working on typographic textures in WEBGL first before bringing them in VR. These are | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | src/webgl/utils.js | 115 | // for webgl 1 we need to check if the texture is power of two | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/type/p5.Font.js | 542 | // Step 2: build base flat geometry - single shape | COMMENT |
| LOW | src/type/p5.Font.js | 607 | // Step 5: Create extruded geometry | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | src/strands/strands_api.js | 1755 | // TODO: implement member access operations | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | test/mockServiceWorker.js | 124 | async function handleRequest(event, requestId, requestInterceptedAt) { | CODE |