ExDNA 🧬

Code duplication detector for Elixir, inspired by jscpd but built on Elixir's native AST instead of token matching.

Because ExDNA understands code structure — not just text — fn(a, b) -> a + b end and fn(x, y) -> x + y end are recognized as the same code. It also tells you how to fix each clone: extract a function, a macro, or a behaviour callback.

Features

• Three clone types — exact copies (I), renamed variables / changed literals (II), and near-miss clones via structural similarity (III)
• Multi-clause awareness — consecutive def/defp clauses with the same name/arity are analyzed as a single unit, catching duplicated pattern-matching functions that individual clauses are too small to flag
• Delegation pattern detection — def foo(x), do: foo(x, []) followed by def foo(x, opts) are grouped as one unit, catching duplicated wrapper+body pairs across modules
• Sibling window detection — adjacent functions copied between modules are caught even when the surrounding code differs
• Refactoring suggestions — extract function, extract macro, extract behaviour with @callback
• Smart naming — suggestions are named after the dominant struct, call, or pattern (build_changeset, contact_step) instead of extracted_function
• Pipe normalization — x |> f() and f(x) match as the same code
• Field order normalization — %User{name: x, age: y} and %User{age: y, name: x} match in Type-II mode
• Guard normalization — when is_binary(x) and when is_atom(x) match in Type-II mode (covers Kernel guards, defguard, library guards)
• Boolean operator normalization — &&/||/! match and/or/not
• Sigil expansion — ~w(foo bar)a matches [:foo, :bar]
• Cross-file grouping — actions/ ↔ tools/ (6 clones, 298 nodes) instead of listing each pair
• Credo-style suppression comments — suppress known/intentional duplicates
• Incremental Mix.Task.Compiler — reuses complete results when sources are unchanged
• LSP server — pushes clone diagnostics to your editor alongside Expert or ElixirLS
• Credo integration — drop-in replacement for DuplicatedCode, reuses Credo's parsed ASTs
• CI-ready — exits with code 1 when clones are found, or use --max-clones for a clone budget
• Four output formats — Credo-style console, JSON, self-contained HTML, and SARIF for GitHub Code Scanning
• Fast — parallel file parsing, Plausible (465 files) in ~1 second, Ash (554 files) in ~6 seconds with full Type-I/II/III detection

Installation

def deps do
  [{:ex_dna, "~> 1.5", only: [:dev, :test], runtime: false}]
end

Usage

mix ex_dna                              # scan lib/
mix ex_dna lib/accounts lib/admin       # specific paths
mix ex_dna --literal-mode abstract      # enable literal abstraction for Type-II
mix ex_dna --min-similarity 0.85        # enable Type-III (near-miss)
mix ex_dna --min-fuzzy-mass 80          # require larger Type-III candidates
mix ex_dna --min-mass 50                # fewer, larger clones
mix ex_dna --max-clones 10              # fail only above budget
mix ex_dna --format json                # machine-readable
mix ex_dna --cache --format json        # reuse unchanged analysis results
mix ex_dna --format html                # browsable report
mix ex_dna --format sarif               # GitHub Code Scanning

Deep-dive into a specific clone:

mix ex_dna.explain 3
mix ex_dna.explain 3 lib/accounts --min-mass 20

Shows the full anti-unification breakdown — common structure, divergence points, and the suggested extraction with call sites. Pass the same paths and detection flags you used for mix ex_dna to keep clone numbering aligned.

Typical workflows

mix ex_dna --min-mass 40

Start with exact and renamed-variable clones, then opt into broader matching as needed:

mix ex_dna --literal-mode abstract      # include changed literals (Type II)
mix ex_dna --min-similarity 0.85       # include near-miss clones (Type III)
mix ex_dna --normalize-pipes           # compare pipe chains and nested calls

For noisy brownfield projects, raise --min-mass or --min-fuzzy-mass, and use --max-clones as a clone budget while paying down duplication.

Programmatic API

report = ExDNA.analyze("lib/")
report = ExDNA.analyze(["lib/", "test/"])
report = ExDNA.analyze(paths: ["lib/"], min_mass: 20, literal_mode: :abstract)

report.clones   #=> [%ExDNA.Detection.Clone{}, ...]
report.stats    #=> %{files_analyzed: 42, total_clones: 3, ...}

Configuration

Options are layered: defaults → .ex_dna.exs → CLI flags.

Create .ex_dna.exs in your project root:

%{
  min_mass: 25,
  min_occurrences: 3,
  ignore: ["lib/my_app_web/templates/**"],
  excluded_macros: [:schema, :pipe_through, :plug],
  normalize_pipes: true
}

Default ignored attributes: all of Elixir's reserved attributes (moduledoc, doc, spec, type, impl, behaviour, derive, etc.).

Custom module attributes like @extensions, @timeout, or @fields are fingerprinted and will be reported as duplicates when they appear with the same value in multiple modules.

Suppressing clones

Use Credo-style comments when a duplicate is intentional:

defmodule MyApp.Validator do
  # ex_dna:disable-for-next-line
  def validate(params) do
    # intentional duplication, won't be flagged
  end
end

Supported comments:

# ex_dna:disable-for-this-file
# ex_dna:disable-for-next-line
# ex_dna:disable-for-previous-line
# ex_dna:disable-for-lines:3

max_clones / min_occurrences

• min_occurrences → only report clone groups appearing in 3+ locations
• max_clones → return non-zero exit if more than 10 reportable clone groups remain

Note that max_clones applies after report filters like min_occurrences so clones that were not reported due to min_occurrences are not counted towards the max_clones budget.

Incremental detection

Add ExDNA as a compiler for automatic detection on mix compile:

def project do
  [compilers: Mix.compilers() ++ [:ex_dna]]
end

Source digests validate the cached result. When no source changed, ExDNA returns the previous clone groups without rewriting the cache or rerunning detection. When a source changes, ExDNA reruns normal analysis and replaces the result. The cache is stored in .ex_dna_cache (add it to .gitignore).

The same cache is available to standalone checks while preserving all output formats and explicit paths:

mix ex_dna lib/ test/ --cache --format json

Editor integration

ExDNA ships an LSP server that pushes warnings inline on every save. It runs alongside your primary Elixir LSP.

mix ex_dna.lsp

Neovim

vim.lsp.config('ex_dna', {
  cmd = { 'mix', 'ex_dna.lsp' },
  root_markers = { 'mix.exs' },
  filetypes = { 'elixir' },
})

Credo integration

ExDNA ships a Credo check that replaces the built-in DuplicatedCode with full Type-I/II/III detection and refactoring suggestions. It reuses Credo's already-parsed ASTs — no double parsing.

Use as a Credo plugin (recommended) — automatically registers the check and disables the built-in DuplicatedCode:

# .credo.exs
%{
  configs: [
    %{
      name: "default",
      plugins: [{ExDNA.Credo, []}]
    }
  ]
}

Or add directly to the :enabled checks list:

{ExDNA.Credo, []}

And disable the built-in check:

{Credo.Check.Design.DuplicatedCode, false}

All ExDNA options are available as check/plugin params. By default the Credo check uses the same path scope as mix ex_dna (lib/); pass paths: ["lib/", "test/"] if you want Credo to include test files too.

{ExDNA.Credo, [
  paths: ["lib/", "test/"],
  min_mass: 40,
  literal_mode: :abstract,
  excluded_macros: [:schema, :pipe_through],
  normalize_pipes: true,
  min_similarity: 0.85
]}

How it works

1. Parse — Code.string_to_quoted/2 on every .ex/.exs file (parallel, with per-file timeout)
2. Normalize — strip line/column metadata → rename variables to positional placeholders ($0, $1) → optionally abstract literals → optionally flatten pipes → sort struct/map fields
3. Fingerprint — walk every subtree above min_mass nodes, hash with BLAKE2b; also generate sliding windows over module-level sibling sequences and compute structural sub-hashes for fuzzy candidate pruning
4. Detect — group by hash (Type I/II); use inverted index on sub-hashes + Jaccard similarity + tree edit distance for Type III
5. Filter — prune nested clones, keep the largest match per location
6. Suggest — anti-unify each clone pair to compute the common structure, generate extract-function/macro/behaviour suggestions

Part of Elixir Vibe

ExDNA finds duplicated Elixir code by structure and computes the canonical extraction for each clone family.

It is one building block of a larger stack — tools that make AI-generated software checkable: structural search, dependence analysis, duplication and slop detection, session replay, and ecosystem-wide code search. See the Elixir Vibe organization for the rest, and Building Blocks for the Future Web for the thesis, architecture, and roadmap that tie them together.

License

MIT