ego-lint

ego-lint

Automated EGO compliance checker for GNOME Shell extensions.

What It Checks

Category	Checks	Severity
Metadata	UUID format, required fields, shell-version, session-modes	FAIL/WARN
Schema	ID matches metadata, path format, compilation	FAIL
Imports	GTK in extension.js, Shell libs in prefs.js	FAIL
Logging	console.log() usage (console.debug is OK)	FAIL
Deprecated	Mainloop, Lang, ByteArray, ExtensionUtils, Tweener imports	FAIL
Web APIs	setTimeout, setInterval, fetch, XMLHttpRequest, DOM APIs, require()	FAIL
Pattern Rules	Additional checks from rules/patterns.yaml (web APIs, deprecated APIs, AI slop signals)	FAIL/WARN
Quality	Heuristic code quality checks (try-catch density, empty catches, mutable state)	WARN
Files	extension.js/metadata.json exist, LICENSE present	FAIL/WARN
CSS	Unscoped class names in stylesheet.css	WARN
ESLint	eslint-config-gnome violations	FAIL/WARN
Package	Forbidden files in zip, required files present	FAIL

How to Run

bash <path-to-this-skill>/scripts/ego-lint.sh [extension-directory]

If extension-directory is omitted, uses the current working directory.

The script path is relative to this skill's location. In practice, Claude will resolve the absolute path.

Interpreting Results

Each check outputs one line:

• [PASS] — Check passed
• [FAIL] — Blocking issue that must be fixed before EGO submission
• [WARN] — Advisory issue that may cause reviewer questions
• [SKIP] — Check could not run (missing tool or not applicable)

The script exits with code 0 if no FAILs, 1 if any FAIL.

Common Fixes

Failure	Fix
console.log found	Replace with console.debug() for operational messages
GTK import in extension.js	Move GTK code to prefs.js
Shell import in prefs.js	Move Shell code to extension.js or lib/
Deprecated Mainloop	Use GLib.timeout_add() / GLib.Source.remove()
setTimeout/setInterval	Use GLib.timeout_add() / GLib.timeout_add_seconds()
fetch()	Use Soup.Session or Gio.File for network/file I/O
UUID mismatch	Ensure metadata.json uuid matches directory name exactly
Missing shell-version 48	Add "48" to the shell-version array
session-modes ["user"]	Remove the key entirely (it is the EGO default)

Check Tiers

Tier 1: Pattern Rules

Additional lint rules are defined declaratively in rules/patterns.yaml and processed by scripts/apply-patterns.py. Each pattern rule specifies a regex, the file globs to match against, a severity level, and a human-readable message. This makes it easy to add new checks without writing shell or Python code.

Pattern rules currently cover:

• Extended Web API detection — XMLHttpRequest, requestAnimationFrame, DOM APIs (document.*), window object usage, localStorage, require() (Node.js), clearTimeout(), and clearInterval()
• Extended deprecated API detection — ExtensionUtils (removed in GNOME 45+), Tweener (removed), imports.misc.convenience (removed in GNOME 45+), legacy imports.* syntax, and spawn_command_line_sync
• Security patterns — eval(), new Function(), HTTP (non-HTTPS) URLs, pkexec/sudo privilege escalation, and shell injection via /bin/sh -c
• Import segregation — Shell UI modules in prefs.js
• Logging patterns — Legacy log() function, print()/printerr()
• AI slop signals — TypeScript-style JSDoc annotations (@param {Type}, @returns {Type}), deprecated version field in metadata, non-standard metadata fields (homepage, bug-report-url), magic button numbers instead of Clutter constants, typeof super.method === 'function' checks, defensive spread copies, instanceof Error checks, empty destroy() overrides
• Version compatibility — GNOME 44-50 API changes (removed Clutter classes, Meta API moves, CSS class renames, X11 removal in GNOME 50)
• Internationalization — Template literals and string concatenation inside gettext _(), breaking xgettext extraction
• Code quality — Module-scope GObject construction, string-based version comparison, GSettings bind flags confusion, repeated getSettings instances

Tier 2: Quality Heuristics

scripts/check-quality.py runs heuristic code quality checks that detect patterns commonly seen in AI-generated or over-engineered extensions. These are advisory-only (WARN severity) and do not block submission, but they flag code that EGO reviewers are likely to question:

• Excessive try-catch density (wrapping every few lines in try/catch)
• Impossible state checks (isLocked without unlock-dialog session-mode)
• Over-engineered async coordination patterns (_pendingDestroy, _initializing)
• Module-level mutable state (variables outside class scope)
• Empty catch blocks (silencing errors without handling them)
• Excessive _destroyed flag density (over-defensive lifecycle checks)
• Mock/test code in production (MockDevice.js, test files, MOCK_MODE triggers)
• Constructor resource allocation (getSettings, connect, timeout_add in constructors)
• Repeated getSettings()/Gio.Settings instances across extension files
• Network disclosure for extensions accessing remote services
• Clipboard data paired with network access (exfiltration risk)

Minified/Bundled JavaScript Detection

ego-lint.sh checks for minified or bundled JavaScript files that cannot be reviewed. Files with lines over 500 characters or webpack boilerplate (__webpack_require__) are flagged as blocking failures.

Fallback

If the scripts cannot run (e.g., no bash available), perform manual checks by reading the extension files and applying the rules in rules-reference.md.

Reference

For the complete rules catalog with severity, rationale, and examples, see rules-reference.md.