Slop Prevention Audit

Recurring 6-lens scan of core/ / evals/ / evolve/ / scripts/ to catch the patterns that accumulate during long PR sequences and rot codebase health when nobody is grepping for them.

When to run

• Per session, before the final PR merges. Catches inline duplicates and dead-helper candidates introduced during a sprint.
• After a large refactor / removal PR. Surfaces stale references to the removed feature in unrelated files.
• Before promotion. Use it to find review candidates; its counts do not decide promotion.

The 6 lenses

#	Lens	What it surfaces	Severity tier
1	unused_imports	ruff F401 — module imports never referenced.	warning
2	dead_private_functions	def _foo(...) with zero in-file callers.	warning if >10
3	duplicate_signatures	Same function name defined in ≥3 files (lift-to-helper signal).	info
4	abandoned_todos	TODO/FIXME/XXX without owner (name) or YYYY-MM-DD date.	warning if >5
5	lint_bypass_markers	# noqa + # type: ignore count.	info
6	stale_references	Known-removed names that re-appear in source (BudgetGuard, seeds_safe10, etc.).	error if >0

Severity is diagnostic. Heuristic absolute counts are not an accepted-debt floor or promotion contract.

Reading the output

uv run python scripts/slop_audit.py

Emits a markdown report with the count table + first 5 samples per lens. Inspect samples for patterns:

• unused_imports samples in tests/ → leftover after a refactor. Auto-fix: uv run ruff check --fix --select F401.
• dead_private_functions in agent files → same-file textual candidates. Check cross-module, registry, entrypoint, and compatibility consumers before changing them.
• duplicate_signatures = "init"/"build"/etc. → expected framework method. Other shared names still require behavior and caller comparison; they do not automatically justify a shared helper.
• abandoned_todos → add owner (@handle) or remove. The convention is # TODO(@user, 2026-05-18): ....
• stale_references = N for any N > 0 → fix in the same PR as the feature removal; allowing it to land merges the rot.

Workflow

uv run python scripts/slop_audit.py

The original 2026-05-18 absolute-count snapshot is preserved at docs/reference/2026-05-18-slop-audit-baseline.md as historical evidence. It is not a current pass/fail contract. Ruff, mypy, dependency checks, coverage, and behavior tests remain the promotion gates.

Treat all six lenses as discovery signals. Before deleting code or tests, use the deletion gate in .agents/skills/agent-anti-pattern/references/field-guide.md.

Stale-reference list

scripts/slop_audit.py maintains _STALE_REFS — a tuple of names that should not re-appear in production code after their removal PR. Current list:

• BudgetGuard (removed PR 1)
• SUBAGENT_BUDGET_WARNING (removed PR 1)
• seeds_safe10 (renamed PR 0)
• FitnessBaseline (removed S9)
• plugins.benchmark_harness, plugins.crucible, plugins.petri_audit, and plugins.seed_generation (removed in v1.0.24)
• core.self_improving and geode_product (removed in v1.0.24)

Add a new entry whenever you remove a public surface. The lens ignores docs/ and CHANGELOG.md so historical prose stays documented. Independent docs/package/install probes mark only their intentional retirement expectations with # slop:keep.