archibate AI Slop Review Checklist
Review the specified code for AI-generated slop patterns.
Target: $ARGUMENTS (or current git diff if no arguments provided)
Output format: Group findings by category. For each: file path, line number, pattern name, brief description, suggested fix. Do not make inline edits — report findings and let user decide what to fix.
A. Defensive Programming
Load the anti-defensive skill and apply all 10 patterns:
- Swallowing exceptions
- Dictionary defaults on required fields
- Null coalescing to fabricate data
- Type coercion instead of validation
- Compatibility shims
- Unnecessary null checks
- Catch-all exception handlers
- Over-validation at internal boundaries
- Fabricated default values
- Logging warnings instead of raising
B. Over-Engineering
| Pattern | Flag When |
|---|---|
| Premature abstraction | Factory/strategy/abstract base class for a single implementation. "In case we need it later." |
| Unnecessary wrappers | get_config() that just calls os.environ.get(). Utility functions invoked only once. |
| Over-modularization | Simple logic split across many files when one suffices. Deep directory nesting for small codebase. |
C. Unnecessary Infrastructure
| Pattern | Flag When |
|---|---|
| Retry logic everywhere | Exponential backoff on local function calls or non-transient operations. |
| Config/env var overuse | Every constant configurable via env var, even ones that should never change (math constants, format strings). |
| Unnecessary async | asyncio/threading on CPU-bound or already-fast operations (<10ms). |
| Feature flags for no reason | Boolean toggles controlling behavior that has no reason to vary. |
D. Code Bloat
| Pattern | Flag When |
|---|---|
| Excessive logging | logger.info on every function entry/exit. Logging parameter values and return values of internal functions. |
| Magic number extraction | MAX_SIZE = 100 when 100 is obvious from context. Constants that add no clarity. |
| Trivial docstrings | def add(a, b): """Add a and b.""" — docstring restates function name. |
| Unnecessary data classes | dataclass/TypedDict created for one-off use instead of just using a dict or tuple. |
E. Testing Slop
| Pattern | Flag When |
|---|---|
| Tests that test nothing | Asserting a function exists or returns the right type, not that it returns correct values. Tests with no assertions. |
| Over-mocking | Mocking so heavily the test only validates the mock, not the real logic. Mocking what you're trying to test. |
F. Other Patterns
| Pattern | Flag When |
|---|---|
| Callback/event overuse | Event emitters, hook systems, or pub/sub for simple linear flows. |
| Runtime type checking | isinstance checks inside functions that duplicate what type hints + static analysis already handle. |
| Hallucinated imports | Using APIs from wrong library version. Importing packages that don't exist. |
| Boilerplate generators | Code that exists to satisfy a template rather than solve a problem. Empty __init__.py with docstrings. |
Summary Table
| Category | Count | Source |
|---|---|---|
| A. Defensive Programming | 10 | anti-defensive skill |
| B. Over-Engineering | 3 | This skill |
| C. Unnecessary Infrastructure | 4 | This skill |
| D. Code Bloat | 4 | This skill |
| E. Testing Slop | 2 | This skill |
| F. Other | 4 | This skill |
| Total | 27 |