Content
# slop-guard
[](https://eric-tramel.github.io/slop-guard/docs/)
A rule-based prose linter that scores text 0--100 for formulaic AI writing patterns. No LLM judge, no API calls. Purely programmatic.
The default pipeline loads 24 configurable rules backed by 200+ literal and structural heuristics. It returns a numeric score, a band label, specific violations with surrounding context, and concrete advice for each hit.
## Add to Your Agent
Both clients use the same MCP command: `uvx slop-guard`.
If you want a custom rule JSONL, append `-c /path/to/config.jsonl`.
### Claude Code
Add from the command line:
```bash
claude mcp add slop-guard -- uvx slop-guard
```
Add to your `.mcp.json`:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"slop-guard": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["slop-guard"]
}
}
}
```
### Codex
Add from the command line:
```bash
codex mcp add slop-guard -- uvx slop-guard
```
Add to your `~/.codex/config.toml`:
```toml
[mcp_servers.slop-guard]
command = "uvx"
args = ["slop-guard"]
```
If you want a fixed release, pin it in `args`, for example: `["slop-guard==0.5.0"]`.
## CLI
The `sg` command lints prose from the terminal. No API keys, no network calls.
### Quick start
```bash
# Run without installing
uvx --from slop-guard sg README.md
# Or install it
uv tool install slop-guard
sg README.md
```
### Usage
```
sg [OPTIONS] INPUT [INPUT ...]
```
`sg` requires at least one input. Each input can be a file path, `-` for stdin, or quoted inline prose text:
```bash
sg "This is some test text"
echo "Latency dropped from 180 ms to 95 ms." | sg -
```
Lint multiple files at once (shell-level glob expansion):
```bash
sg docs/*.md README.md
sg path/**/*.md
```
### Options
| Flag | Description |
|------|-------------|
| `-j`, `--json` | Output results as JSON, including `source` as the raw inline/stdin text or full file path |
| `-v`, `--verbose` | Show individual violations and advice |
| `-q`, `--quiet` | Only print sources that fail the threshold |
| `-t SCORE`, `--threshold SCORE` | Minimum passing score (0-100). Exit 1 if any input scores below this |
| `-c JSONL`, `--config JSONL` | Path to JSONL rule configuration. Defaults to packaged settings |
| `-s`, `--score-only` | Print only numeric score output |
| `--counts` | Show per-rule hit counts in the summary line |
### Examples
```bash
# One-line summary per file
sg draft.md
# => draft.md: 72/100 [light] (1843 words) *
# Score-only output
sg -s draft.md
# Use a custom rule config
sg -c /path/to/config.jsonl draft.md
# Verbose output with violations and advice
sg -v draft.md
# JSON for scripting
sg -j report.md | jq '.score'
# JSON preserves the true CLI input identity
sg -j "The migration finished in 12 seconds." | jq '.source'
# => "The migration finished in 12 seconds."
# CI gate: fail if any file scores below 60
sg -t 60 docs/*.md
# Quiet mode: only show failures
sg -q -t 60 **/*.md
```
### Exit codes
| Code | Meaning |
|------|---------|
| 0 | Success (all files pass threshold, or no threshold set) |
| 1 | One or more files scored below the threshold |
| 2 | Error (bad file path, read failure, etc.) |
## Fit Rule Configs (`sg-fit`)
Use `sg-fit` to fit a rule JSONL config from corpus data:
```bash
# Legacy shorthand
sg-fit TARGET_CORPUS OUTPUT
# Multi-input mode (for shell-expanded globs or many files)
sg-fit --output OUTPUT TRAIN_INPUT [TRAIN_INPUT ...]
```
Example:
```bash
sg-fit data.jsonl rules.fitted.jsonl
sg-fit --output rules.fitted.jsonl **/*.txt **/*.md
```
Optional arguments:
- `--init JSONL`: Start from a specific rule config JSONL instead of packaged defaults.
- `--negative-dataset INPUT [INPUT ...]`: Add negative dataset inputs. This flag can be repeated; all negative rows are normalized to label `0`.
- `--no-calibration`: Skip post-fit contrastive penalty calibration for faster fitting on large corpora.
- `--output JSONL`: Required when you pass more than one training input.
Target corpus rows can be either:
```json
{"text": "body of text", "label": 1}
```
or:
```json
{"text": "body of text"}
```
If `label` is omitted in the target corpus, `sg-fit` treats it as `1` (positive/target style).
`sg-fit` also accepts `.txt` and `.md` files. Each file is normalized into a single training sample.
## Installation
Requires [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/).
Run without installing (recommended for MCP setups):
```bash
uvx slop-guard
# MCP server with custom rule config
uvx slop-guard -c /path/to/config.jsonl
```
Install persistently (gives you `slop-guard`, `sg`, and `sg-fit`):
```bash
uv tool install slop-guard
```
Pin versions for reproducibility:
```bash
uvx slop-guard==0.5.0
```
Upgrade an installed tool:
```bash
uv tool upgrade slop-guard
```
### From source
From a local checkout:
```bash
uv run slop-guard # MCP server
uv run slop-guard -c config.jsonl
uv run sg # CLI linter
uv run sg-fit data.jsonl rules.fitted.jsonl
```
Core development workflows are also exposed through `make`:
```bash
make sync
make check
make fix
make build
make verify-wheel
```
## MCP Tools
`check_slop(text)`: Analyze a string. Returns JSON diagnostics only; it does not repeat the input text.
`check_slop_file(file_path)`: Read a file from disk and analyze it. Same output, without repeating the file path in the payload.
## What it catches
The default rules cover stock hype words and boilerplate phrases, assistant tone markers, unattributed weasel phrasing, AI self-disclosure, placeholder text, bullet/blockquote/horizontal-rule-heavy Markdown structures, arbitrary mid-sentence keyword bold, sentence and paragraph rhythm, and em dash or colon overuse.
They also flag contrast/setup-resolution tells, pithy fragments, repeated 4-8 word phrases, copula chains, extreme long sentences, aphoristic closers, and uneven paragraph cadence.
Texts under 10 words are skipped and return a clean `100`.
Otherwise scoring uses exponential decay: `score = 100 * exp(-lambda * density)`, where density is the weighted penalty sum normalized per 1000 words. Claude-specific categories (contrast pairs, setup-resolution, pithy fragments) get a concentration multiplier. Repeated use of the same tic costs more than diverse violations.
## Scoring bands
| Score | Band |
|-------|------|
| 80-100 | Clean |
| 60-79 | Light |
| 40-59 | Moderate |
| 20-39 | Heavy |
| 0-19 | Saturated |
## Output
CLI `--json` output and MCP tool responses share this structure:
```
source CLI JSON only; raw inline/stdin text or full file path
score 0-100 integer
band "clean" / "light" / "moderate" / "heavy" / "saturated"
word_count integer
violations array of {type, rule, match, context, penalty, start, end}
counts per-category violation counts
total_penalty sum of all penalty values
weighted_sum after concentration multiplier
density weighted_sum per 1000 words
advice array of advice strings, one per distinct issue
```
MCP tool responses omit `source`, because the tool transport already carries the
input parameter.
`violations[].type` is always `"Violation"` for typed records.
## Benchmark snapshot
Example score distribution from `benchmark/us_pd_newspapers_histogram.py` on
`PleIAs/US-PD-Newspapers` (first 9,001 rows of one local shard):
Example score-vs-length scatter plot from
`benchmark/us_pd_newspapers_scatter.py` on the same shard:
Example per-rule compute-time curves from `benchmark/compute-time.py` +
`benchmark/chart.py` (annotated with the slowest rules at max length):
## License
MIT
## Acknowledgements
- [@secemp9](https://x.com/secemp9) for his original [anti-slop rubric](https://github.com/secemp9/rubrics/blob/main/special_ones/anti_slop_rubric.xml) and inspiration.
- [@myainotez](https://x.com/myainotez) for their contributions and many helpful conversations about the project.
