Repository Analysis

watchexec/watchexec

Executes commands in response to file modifications

5.7 Low AI signal View on GitHub

Analysis Overview

This report presents the forensic synthetic code analysis of watchexec/watchexec, a Rust project with 7,107 GitHub stars. SynthScan v2.0 examined 23,549 lines of code across 200 source files, recording 135 pattern matches distributed across 2 syntactic categories. The overall adjusted score of 5.7 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).

5.7
Adjusted Score
5.7
Raw Score
100%
Time Factor
2026-08-04
Last Push
7.1K
Stars
Rust
Language
23.5K
Lines of Code
200
Files
135
Pattern Hits
2026-08-09
Scan Date
0.00
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 0MEDIUM 0LOW 135

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 135 distinct pattern matches across 2 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 Block134 hits · 134 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
LOWcrates/filterer/globset/src/lib.rs41 .field("filters", &"ignore::gitignore::Gitignore{...}")COMMENT
LOWcrates/filterer/ignore/tests/filtering.rs121 // #[cfg(windows)] FIXME should workCOMMENT
LOWcrates/filterer/ignore/tests/filtering.rs141 #[cfg(not(windows))]COMMENT
LOWcrates/filterer/ignore/src/lib.rs1//! A Watchexec Filterer implementation for ignore files.COMMENT
LOWcrates/project-origins/src/lib.rs1//! Resolve project origins and kinds from a path.COMMENT
LOWcrates/project-origins/src/lib.rs21use futures::StreamExt;COMMENT
LOWcrates/project-origins/src/lib.rs41COMMENT
LOWcrates/project-origins/src/lib.rs61 /// Detects when a `.hg` folder is present, or any of the files `.hgignore` or `.hgtags`.COMMENT
LOWcrates/project-origins/src/lib.rs81 /// Soft: the [C programming language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)).COMMENT
LOWcrates/project-origins/src/lib.rs101 /// Soft: the [Go](https://golang.net) language.COMMENT
LOWcrates/project-origins/src/lib.rs121 /// Detects when a `project.clj` file is present.COMMENT
LOWcrates/signals/src/lib.rs1#![doc = include_str!("../README.md")]COMMENT
LOWcrates/signals/src/lib.rs21/// On Windows, only some signals are supported, as described. Others will be ignored.COMMENT
LOWcrates/signals/src/lib.rs41 /// Despite its nominal purpose, on Unix this signal is often used to reload configuration files.COMMENT
LOWcrates/signals/src/lib.rs61 /// Indicate that the process is to stop, the kernel will then dump its core.COMMENT
LOWcrates/signals/src/lib.rs81 /// This signal is generally used to start debugging.COMMENT
LOWcrates/signals/src/lib.rs101 ///COMMENT
LOWcrates/signals/src/lib.rs181}COMMENT
LOWcrates/signals/src/lib.rs241 /// Parse the input as a windows control event.COMMENT
LOWcrates/signals/src/lib.rs281COMMENT
LOWcrates/bosion/src/lib.rs21/// [`gather_to`]: it writes to `bosion.rs` a pub struct named `Bosion`.COMMENT
LOWcrates/bosion/src/lib.rs81 (format!(COMMENT
LOWcrates/bosion/src/lib.rs141 {viz} struct {structname};COMMENT
LOWcrates/bosion/src/lib.rs161 /// The crate featuresCOMMENT
LOWcrates/bosion/src/lib.rs201/// See the crate-level documentation for a guide. This function is a convenience wrapper aroundCOMMENT
LOWcrates/bosion/src/info.rs1use std::{COMMENT
LOWcrates/bosion/src/info.rs21pub struct Info {COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/tests/ignore.rs21const WATCH_TOKEN: &str = "updated";COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/config.rs721}COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args.rs21const OPTSET_FILTERING: &str = "Filtering";COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args.rs41///COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args.rs81 /// $ watchexec -w src npm run buildCOMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args.rs121 /// Generate a shell completions scriptCOMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/filtering.rs21pub struct FilteringArgs {COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/filtering.rs81 )]COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/filtering.rs101 /// watched project. This is contrasted with '--no-vcs-ignore', which disables loading of GitCOMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/filtering.rs121 display_order = 144,COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/filtering.rs161 ///COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/filtering.rs201 /// Filename patterns to filter toCOMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/filtering.rs241 ///COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/filtering.rs261 ///COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/filtering.rs281 ///COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/filtering.rs301 /// 'any(.tags[] | select(.kind == "fs"); .simple == "create")'COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/events.rs41 long,COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/events.rs61 help_heading = OPTSET_EVENTS,COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/events.rs81 /// Signal syntax is case-insensitive for short names (like "TERM", "USR2") and long names (likeCOMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/events.rs101 /// partially written.COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/events.rs121COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/events.rs161COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/events.rs201 ///COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/events.rs221 /// set of events Watchexec handles. Here's an example of a folder being created on Linux:COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/events.rs241 /// "metadata": {COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/events.rs261 /// * 'process', for events caused by processes:COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/events.rs281 /// - $WATCHEXEC_CREATED_PATH is set when files/folders were createdCOMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/command.rs41 ///COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/command.rs61 /// control flow, logic, or pipes.COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/command.rs101 ///COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/command.rs141 /// Configure how the process is wrappedCOMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/command.rs161 )]COMMENT
LOWcrates/cli/src/args/command.rs181 long,COMMENT
74 more matches not shown…
Fake / Example Data1 hit · 1 pts
SeverityFileLineSnippetContext
LOWcrates/cli/README.md100 $ watchexec -n -- echo ';' lorem ipsumCODE