slop-guard

Detect AI slop patterns in prose. Scores text 0-100 using ~80 regex rules that target common LLM writing tics.

Install

cargo install slop-guard

If you don't have Rust installed:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
cargo install slop-guard

Usage

# Analyze from stdin
echo "This is a crucial, groundbreaking paradigm shift." | slop-guard

# Analyze files
slop-guard essay.md blog-post.txt

Output

JSON object with:

score: 0-100 (higher = cleaner)
band: clean / light / moderate / heavy / saturated
violations: array of detected patterns with context
advice: actionable suggestions
counts: per-category violation counts

As a library

use slop_guard::analyze;

let result = analyze("Your text here");
println!("Score: {}/100 ({})", result.score, result.band);

What it catches

Category	Examples
Slop words	crucial, groundbreaking, delve, tapestry, moreover
Slop phrases	"it's worth noting", "let's dive in", "at the end of the day"
Structural patterns	Bold-header blocks, excessive bullet runs, triadic lists
Tone markers	"would you like", "feel free to", "certainly" as opener
Weasel phrases	"experts suggest", "studies show", "many believe"
AI disclosure	"as an AI", "as a language model"
Rhythm monotony	Uniform sentence lengths (low coefficient of variation)
Em dash overuse	Excessive em dashes relative to word count
Contrast pairs	"X, not Y" constructions
Setup-resolution	"This isn't X. It's Y." flips
Colon density	Overuse of elaboration colons
Pithy fragments	Short evaluative pivots ("Simple, but effective.")
Phrase reuse	Repeated multi-word phrases

Score bands

Band	Range	Meaning
Clean	80-100	Minimal AI patterns
Light	60-79	A few tells, mostly human-sounding
Moderate	40-59	Noticeable AI patterns
Heavy	20-39	Significant AI influence
Saturated	0-19	Strongly AI-generated

Claude Code Plugin

slop-guard ships as a Claude Code plugin with a /slop-guard skill. The skill runs slop-guard on files or text you've written and revises it to eliminate AI patterns.

Install the plugin

Add the marketplace and install:

/plugin marketplace add nwyin/slop-guard-rs
/plugin install slop-guard@slop-guard

Use the skill

/slop-guard essay.md
/slop-guard blog-post.txt
/slop-guard last

The skill will:

Check that slop-guard is installed (offers to install via cargo install if missing)
Run the analysis and report the score, band, and top violations
Revise the text to fix detected patterns
Re-run to verify the score improved to >= 80 (clean)

Contributing

cargo test
cargo fmt
cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features

License

MIT

nwyin.com

slop-guard 0.3.0