sloplint

AST-based multilingual linter that catches AI-generated code slop.

Powered by ast-grep via @ast-grep/napi — rules run on real syntax trees, not regex over text.

What it catches

Comment patterns (all 8 languages):

| Rule | Example | |------|---------| | obvious-comment | // Initialize the counter above let counter = 0 | | narrator-comment | // This function handles the request | | step-comment | // Step 1: Validate input | | section-divider | // ============ or // --- Helpers --- | | placeholder-comment | // ... rest of the code or // omitted for brevity | | apologetic-comment | // quick hack or // good enough for now | | ai-generated-comment | // Replace this with your actual implementation |

Code patterns (language-specific):

| Rule | Language | Example | |------|----------|---------| | empty-error-handler | TS/JS/Java/Python/Ruby | catch (e) {}, bare except:, empty rescue | | silent-exception | Python | except Exception: pass | | log-in-error-handler | TS/JS | console.log inside catch |

Supported languages

TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Go, Rust, C, C++, Java, Ruby

Usage

# scan a directory
npx @dannote/sloplint src/

# scan specific files
npx @dannote/sloplint main.ts utils.py server.go

# scan everything
npx @dannote/sloplint .

Exits with code 1 if any problems are found.

What it ignores

Comments that provide actual value are never flagged:

• // Wire format: 4-byte LE header followed by varint-encoded payload
• // SAFETY: pointer is guaranteed valid by the borrow checker invariant above
• // Mutex ordering: always acquire lockA before lockB to prevent deadlocks
• // TODO: optimize later

Tool directives are also skipped: eslint-disable, noqa, nolint, NOLINT, clippy::allow, @ts-ignore, etc.

Install

npm install -D @dannote/sloplint

Philosophy

From the PR that inspired this:

Explicit anti-slop editing pass. Removed comments that restate what code does, dead code, unused includes, near-duplicate functions. Comments that remain document wire format specs, non-obvious constraints, or algorithm provenance.

Good comments explain why. Slop comments explain what — and the code already does that.