biston

A structural clone detector for Python code. Written in Rust.

It parses Python files with tree-sitter, normalizes the AST, and finds functions that are structurally similar to each other.

Install

uv add biston

Or build from source:

cargo build --release

Usage

biston <COMMAND>

Commands

`biston scan`

Scan a directory for code clones.

Usage: biston scan [OPTIONS] [PATH]

Arguments:
  [PATH]  Directory to scan [default: .]

Options:
      --format <FORMAT>        Output format [possible values: text, json, sarif]
      --min-lines <MIN_LINES>  Minimum function length in lines
      --threshold <THRESHOLD>  Similarity threshold (0.0 - 1.0)
      --config <CONFIG>        Config file directory (looks for biston.toml or pyproject.toml)
      --tests-only             Restrict the scan to Python test files (overrides include/exclude)
      --suggest                Generate abstraction suggestions for similar pairs
      --files <FILE>           Only emit pairs involving this file (repeat for multiple)
      --files-from <PATH>      Read focus file list from PATH, or `-` for stdin
  -h, --help                   Print help

`biston stats`

Show statistics about scan findings.

Usage: biston stats [OPTIONS] [PATH]

Arguments:
  [PATH]  Directory to scan [default: .]

Options:
      --format <FORMAT>        Output format [possible values: text, json, sarif]
      --min-lines <MIN_LINES>  Minimum function length in lines
      --threshold <THRESHOLD>  Similarity threshold (0.0 - 1.0)
      --config <CONFIG>        Config file directory (looks for biston.toml or pyproject.toml)
      --tests-only             Restrict the scan to Python test files (overrides include/exclude)
      --files <FILE>           Only emit pairs involving this file (repeat for multiple)
      --files-from <PATH>      Read focus file list from PATH, or `-` for stdin
  -h, --help                   Print help

Scanning tests only

Test suites often accumulate duplication (near-identical cases that could be @pytest.mark.parametrize, copy-pasted arrange/act/assert blocks). By default biston excludes test files so production-code findings stay focused. Pass --tests-only to flip the scope and scan only test files:

biston scan --tests-only
biston stats --tests-only

The flag replaces include with common Python test patterns (**/test_*.py, **/*_test.py, **/conftest.py, tests/**/*.py) and clears exclude. Other knobs (min_lines, threshold, normalization) are left untouched — tune them separately in biston.toml if you want different defaults for a test run.

Commit-hook use (focus files)

--files / --files-from let you restrict reporting to pairs involving a specific set of files, while still scanning the whole repo so cross-file clones between those files and the rest of the tree are detected.

For a pre-commit hook, pipe git diff --name-only through --files-from -:

git diff --name-only --diff-filter=ACM -- '*.py' \
  | biston scan --files-from - .

An empty list (no Python files changed) correctly emits no pairs. Prefer --files-from over --files $(git diff --name-only) — the latter expands to an empty flag when nothing changed, which reverts to a full-repo scan.

Configuration

Settings can go in biston.toml or under [tool.biston] in pyproject.toml. If both files exist, biston.toml takes priority. CLI flags override config file settings.

`[scan]`

Setting	Default	Description
`min_lines`	`10`	Minimum function length in lines
`threshold`	`0.7`	Similarity threshold (0.0–1.0)
`exclude`	`["tests/", "/conftest.py", "migrations/**"]`	File patterns to exclude
`include`	`["*/.py"]`	File patterns to include

`[normalization]`

Setting	Default	Description
`anonymize_locals`	`true`	Replace local variable names
`anonymize_literals`	`false`	Replace literal values
`strip_decorators`	`true`	Remove decorators from AST
`strip_type_annotations`	`true`	Remove type hints
`sort_commutative`	`false`	Sort commutative operations

`[output]`

Setting	Default	Description
`format`	`"text"`	Output format (`text`, `json`, or `sarif`)
`group_overlapping`	`true`	Group overlapping clones
`max_results`	`50`	Maximum number of results
`show_source`	`true`	Display source code in output
`context_lines`	`3`	Number of context lines around clones

`[suggest]`

Setting	Default	Description
`enabled`	`false`	Enable suggestion generation
`min_quality`	`0.6`	Minimum template coverage score (0.0–1.0)
`max_holes`	`5`	Maximum holes before suppressing
`render_python`	`true`	Render templates as Python source

`[suppress]`

Setting	Default	Description
`files`	`[]`	File glob patterns to suppress entirely

Example `biston.toml`

[scan]
min_lines = 15
threshold = 0.8
exclude = ["vendor/"]
include = ["src/**/*.py"]

[normalization]
anonymize_locals = false
anonymize_literals = true

[output]
format = "json"
max_results = 100

[suggest]
enabled = true
min_quality = 0.8

Inline suppression

You can also suppress findings with Python comments:

# biston: ignore-file — suppress the entire file (must appear in the first 5 lines)
# biston: ignore — suppress a single function (place in the function body or on the preceding line)

When scan or overview reports clones, the text output ends with a one-line reminder of these options. Run biston usage for the full reference at any time:

biston usage

Documentation

Full docs at https://mojzis.github.io/biston/.

License

MIT

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biston 0.5.4

biston

Install

Usage

Commands

biston scan

biston stats

Scanning tests only

Commit-hook use (focus files)

Configuration

[scan]

[normalization]

[output]

[suggest]

[suppress]

Example biston.toml

Inline suppression

Documentation

License

Project links

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1 maintainer

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License

Requires

Provides Extra

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`biston scan`

`biston stats`

`[scan]`

`[normalization]`

`[output]`

`[suggest]`

`[suppress]`

Example `biston.toml`