find-duplication

Find Code Duplication

Detect duplicated or near-duplicate code and suggest consolidation candidates.

Rules

• Report findings, do not refactor. Refactoring is a separate task.
• Focus on production code (ols/). Skip test duplication unless explicitly asked.
• Group findings by severity: exact duplicates first, then near-duplicates.
• For each finding, state whether extraction is worth it or acceptable duplication.

Step 1: Determine Scope

Ask the user:

• Branch mode: only files changed in the current branch vs main.
• Full mode: scan the entire ols/ directory.

For branch mode:

git diff --name-only origin/main -- 'ols/' | grep '\.py$'

For full mode, the target is ols/.

Step 2: Run Pylint Duplicate Detection

uv run pylint --disable=all --enable=duplicate-code

Review output. Filter out false positives:

• Import blocks (common imports are not duplication)
• Pydantic model boilerplate (Field declarations)
• Single-line patterns (logging, raises)

Step 3: Semantic Duplication Search

Pylint only catches textual similarity. Also look for:

1. Similar function signatures — functions with near-identical parameter lists doing similar work.
2. Repeated error handling — same try/except/log/return pattern across multiple files.
3. Copy-pasted blocks — search for distinctive string literals or variable names that appear in multiple files.

Step 4: Classify Findings

For each duplicate found, classify:

Step 5: Report

For each finding:

1. Files and line ranges involved
2. What is duplicated (brief description)
3. Classification (extract / parameterize / acceptable)
4. Suggested location for shared code (if applicable)

Summary: total findings, how many actionable, estimated lines saved.