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Dead placeholders

Finds the unfinished-work markers that were meant to be temporary.

Gate ID
dead_placeholders
Severity
info
Scope
Tracked files (git ls-files)
Tags
documentationquality

What it checks

Scans every tracked text file (≤ 2 MiB, binaries skipped) for TODO:/FIXME:/XXX:/HACK: markers, the phrase "update this later", and "Lorem ipsum" filler. Severity info — these are intentional signals, but easy to miss before release. Disable individual patterns via gate_options.dead_placeholders.disabled_patterns.

Scans every tracked text file up to 2 MiB. Detected patterns: todo, fixme, xxx, hack, update_later (the phrase "update this later") and lorem_ipsum.

Severity is info by design: these are intentional signals from the author, not mistakes. The value is in seeing them all at once before a release.

What a finding says

text
README.md:2 TODO: — unfinished-work placeholders are easy to miss before release; chase them down or replace with a tracked issue.

Options

json
{
  "gate_options": {
    "dead_placeholders": { "disabled_patterns": ["todo", "xxx"] }
  }
}

Turning it off

Silence the gate for the whole project in .l0git.json:

json
{
  "ignore": ["dead_placeholders"]
}

Or keep it running at a lower severity:

json
{
  "severity": { "dead_placeholders": "info" }
}

See also

Released under the MIT License. · Privacy & legal