ralyodio · Jul 25, 2026 · Jul 25, 2026
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
@@ -131,12 +131,23 @@ Credit purchases are created through `/api/credits/create-invoice`; successful w
 
 ### Free audit
 
-The homepage form queues a free rule-based audit. Email is optional: users get the on-page report immediately via `/r/<share_token>`, and receive a PDF only when they provide an email. Anonymous free scans are unlisted by default; `/recent` and sitemap deep links include only scans where the submitter explicitly opted into public listing. Common tracking parameters such as `utm_*`, `fbclid`, and `gclid` are stripped before new URLs are saved.
+The homepage form queues a free scan — either the rule-based **AEO audit** or the **Slop Score** (see below). Email is optional: users get the on-page report immediately via `/r/<share_token>`, and receive a PDF only when they provide an email. Anonymous free scans are unlisted by default; `/recent` and sitemap deep links include only scans where the submitter explicitly opted into public listing. Common tracking parameters such as `utm_*`, `fbclid`, and `gclid` are stripped before new URLs are saved.
 
 ### Project scan
 
 Signed-in users can save sites as projects, choose one or more engines, and run scans from the project page. A multi-engine scan creates one `audits` row per engine and ties them together with `scan_run_id` for side-by-side reports, consolidated Markdown/PDF, and project score history.
 
+### Slop Score
+
+`lib/audit/slop-engine.ts` sweeps up to 50 same-origin pages (sitemap.xml first, then breadth-first from the entry page) plus a handful of stylesheets, and scores how careless the site looks: **0 is pristine, 100 is maximum slop**. Analyzers live in `lib/audit/checks/slop.ts` across three dimensions — **content** (filler phrasing, no first-party evidence, thin/near-duplicate/boilerplate pages, placeholders, stale copyright, high-confidence misspellings), **code** (leaked template variables, dev/staging hosts, `console.*` and TODO leftovers, duplicate metadata, dead links, deprecated tags) and **design** (missing viewport, unsized images, placeholder alt text, stock-only imagery, inline-style density, palette/typography/`!important` sprawl). Output is the headline score plus a per-page fix list and systemic rollups for defects that live in a shared template.
+
+Two design rules matter when extending it:
+
+- **It reports observable defects, never "this was written by AI."** An AI-probability score is unfalsifiable, the classifiers are unreliable, and it would accuse paying customers. Every finding must be something the owner can verify in ten seconds and fix.
+- **Ambiguous markers only count in unambiguous positions.** Dogfooding on our own blog showed `coming soon`, `your brand name`, `[product]` and `[your site]` all appear in legitimate prose, and a `.netlify.app` hostname appears as scan-result *text* on `/recent` — so standalone-only matching and attribute-only host scanning are load-bearing, not stylistic. `tests/slop.test.ts` guards each case.
+
+It is free (`cost: 0`), runs no LLM, and is therefore immune to the shared-provider-quota outages that stall Autoblog.
+
 ### Credits and engines
 
 Rule-based scans cost 0 credits. Paid AI-model scans cost 1 credit per engine. Credit packs are defined in `lib/credits.ts`; failures and user-aborted paid scans refund credits.

diff --git a/app/actions/runAudit.ts b/app/actions/runAudit.ts
@@ -47,10 +47,21 @@ async function notifyWorker(auditId: string, pdfEmail?: string) {
   }
 }
 
-const ALL_ENGINES: Engine[] = ["rule", "spec", "dns", "links", "vu1nz", "claude", "openai", "gemini", "qwen", "kimi", "deepseek", "zai", "perplexity", "fugu"];
+const ALL_ENGINES: Engine[] = ["rule", "spec", "dns", "links", "slop", "vu1nz", "claude", "openai", "gemini", "qwen", "kimi", "deepseek", "zai", "perplexity", "fugu"];
+
+// Free engines an anonymous visitor may pick from the hero form. Both are
+// deterministic, self-hosted, and page-budgeted, so opening them up costs us
+// nothing per run and can't be turned into an LLM-spend or partner-API faucet.
+// The per-IP anonymous daily limit still applies to both.
+const ANON_ENGINES: Engine[] = ["rule", "slop"];
 
 function normalizeEngines(input: unknown, signedIn: boolean): Engine[] {
-  if (!signedIn) return ["rule"];
+  if (!signedIn) {
+    const picked = Array.isArray(input)
+      ? input.find((e): e is Engine => typeof e === "string" && (ANON_ENGINES as string[]).includes(e))
+      : undefined;
+    return [picked ?? "rule"];
+  }
   if (!Array.isArray(input) || input.length === 0) return DEFAULT_PROJECT_ENGINES;
   const cleaned = dedupeEngines(
     input.filter((e): e is Engine =>

diff --git a/components/charts/engine-trend.tsx b/components/charts/engine-trend.tsx
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ export type EngineTrendPoint = {
 
 const ENGINE_COLORS: Record<Engine, string> = {
   rule: "#9aa3b2",
+  slop: "#d946ef",
   spec: "#64748b",
   dns: "#84cc16",
   links: "#14b8a6",

diff --git a/components/engines-panel.tsx b/components/engines-panel.tsx
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import { DEFAULT_PROJECT_ENGINES, ENGINES, selectionCost, type Engine } from "@/
 import { runScanForProject } from "@/app/actions/runAudit";
 import { updateProjectEngines } from "@/app/actions/projects";
 
-const ENGINE_ORDER: Engine[] = ["rule", "spec", "dns", "links", "vu1nz", "claude", "openai", "gemini", "perplexity", "qwen", "kimi", "deepseek", "zai", "fugu"];
+const ENGINE_ORDER: Engine[] = ["rule", "slop", "spec", "dns", "links", "vu1nz", "claude", "openai", "gemini", "perplexity", "qwen", "kimi", "deepseek", "zai", "fugu"];
 
 export function EnginesPanel({
   projectId,

diff --git a/components/hero-audit-form.tsx b/components/hero-audit-form.tsx
@@ -17,10 +17,28 @@ declare global {
   }
 }
 
-export function HeroAuditForm() {
+type HeroScan = "rule" | "slop";
+
+// Only the two free, self-hosted engines are offered anonymously — kept in
+// sync with ANON_ENGINES in app/actions/runAudit.ts.
+const SCAN_OPTIONS: Array<{ id: HeroScan; label: string; blurb: string }> = [
+  {
+    id: "rule",
+    label: "AEO audit",
+    blurb: "How AI crawlers and answer engines see your site, with fixes.",
+  },
+  {
+    id: "slop",
+    label: "Slop Score",
+    blurb: "Sweeps up to 50 pages for careless content, code, and design.",
+  },
+];
+
+export function HeroAuditForm({ defaultScan = "rule" }: { defaultScan?: HeroScan }) {
   const router = useRouter();
   const [pending, startTransition] = useTransition();
   const [url, setUrl] = useState("");
+  const [scan, setScan] = useState<HeroScan>(defaultScan);
   const [listPublic, setListPublic] = useState(false);
   const [error, setError] = useState<string | null>(null);
   const [urlError, setUrlError] = useState<string | null>(null);
@@ -41,7 +59,7 @@ export function HeroAuditForm() {
       // URL-first: the report is generated and shown on-page for free.
       // Email / phone / monthly-sales are collected AFTER the report
       // (on /r/<token>) only if the user wants the PDF emailed.
-      const res = await startAuditFromForm({ url, listPublic });
+      const res = await startAuditFromForm({ url, listPublic, engines: [scan] });
       if (!res.ok) {
         setError(res.error ?? "Could not start audit.");
         // Slugify the error message so we don't blow past Datafa.st's
@@ -56,13 +74,40 @@ export function HeroAuditForm() {
       }
       window.datafast?.("audit_submitted", {
         listed_public: listPublic ? "yes" : "no",
+        scan,
       });
       router.push(`/r/${res.token}`);
     });
   }
 
   return (
     <form onSubmit={submit} noValidate className="card flex flex-col gap-3 p-4 text-left">
+      <div>
+        <span className="mb-1 block text-xs font-semibold uppercase tracking-wider text-[var(--color-muted)]">
+          Scan type
+        </span>
+        <div className="flex flex-col gap-2 sm:flex-row" role="radiogroup" aria-label="Scan type">
+          {SCAN_OPTIONS.map((opt) => (
+            <button
+              key={opt.id}
+              type="button"
+              role="radio"
+              aria-checked={scan === opt.id}
+              onClick={() => setScan(opt.id)}
+              className="flex-1 rounded-lg border p-3 text-left transition-colors"
+              style={{
+                borderColor: scan === opt.id ? "var(--color-accent)" : "var(--color-border)",
+                background: scan === opt.id ? "color-mix(in oklab, var(--color-accent) 8%, transparent)" : "transparent",
+              }}
+            >
+              <span className="block text-sm font-semibold">{opt.label}</span>
+              <span className="mt-0.5 block text-xs leading-snug text-[var(--color-muted)]">
+                {opt.blurb}
+              </span>
+            </button>
+          ))}
+        </div>
+      </div>
       <Field label="Website URL" error={urlError}>
         <div className="flex flex-col gap-2 sm:flex-row">
           <input
@@ -83,7 +128,7 @@ export function HeroAuditForm() {
             className="btn btn-primary whitespace-nowrap"
             disabled={pending}
           >
-            {pending ? "Starting…" : "Run free audit"}
+            {pending ? "Starting…" : scan === "slop" ? "Get free Slop Score" : "Run free audit"}
           </button>
         </div>
       </Field>

diff --git a/components/report/report-view.tsx b/components/report/report-view.tsx
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 import { SECTIONS } from "@/lib/audit/prompt";
 import { SectionFindings, type FixRun } from "./section";
 import { DataFoundTable } from "./data-found";
+import { SlopMeter } from "./slop-meter";
+import { SLOP_SECTION } from "@/lib/audit/checks/slop";
 import type { Finding } from "@/lib/audit/types";
 import { ENGINES, type Engine } from "@/lib/credits";
 
@@ -98,6 +100,7 @@ export function ReportView({
           }
           return (
             <SectionShell key={s} index={i + 1} title={s}>
+              {s === SLOP_SECTION && <SlopMeter findings={sectionFindings} />}
               <SectionFindings
                 findings={sectionFindings}
                 fixContext={fixContext}
@@ -278,6 +281,7 @@ function EngineReport({
           }
           return (
             <SectionShell key={`${audit.id}-${s}`} index={i + 1} title={s}>
+              {s === SLOP_SECTION && <SlopMeter findings={sectionFindings} />}
               <SectionFindings
                 findings={sectionFindings}
                 fixContext={fixContext}
@@ -294,7 +298,8 @@ export function reportSections(findings: Finding[], engine?: string | null): str
   const findingSections = Array.from(
     new Set(findings.map((f) => f.section).filter(Boolean)),
   );
-  const compactEngine = engine === "dns" || engine === "links" || engine === "spec";
+  const compactEngine =
+    engine === "dns" || engine === "links" || engine === "spec" || engine === "slop";
   if (compactEngine) {
     return findingSections.length > 0 ? findingSections : [...SECTIONS];
   }

diff --git a/components/report/slop-meter.tsx b/components/report/slop-meter.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,120 @@
+import type { Finding } from "@/lib/audit/types";
+
+// The shareable headline of a Slop Score scan.
+//
+// Form choice: the score is a single number, so it's a hero stat — not a chart.
+// The per-dimension breakdown is three magnitudes of the SAME measure (slop
+// points), so it gets one neutral hue with identity carried by the text labels;
+// the status tokens stay reserved for the score's own state, paired with the
+// grade word so state is never conveyed by color alone.
+
+type SlopEvidence = {
+  score?: number;
+  grade?: string;
+  byDimension?: { content?: number; code?: number; design?: number };
+  totals?: { pages?: number; issues?: number; words?: number };
+};
+
+const DIMENSIONS = [
+  { key: "content", label: "Content", hint: "filler, thin pages, duplicates, stale dates" },
+  { key: "code", label: "Code", hint: "leaked template vars, dev URLs, dead links" },
+  { key: "design", label: "Design", hint: "viewport, alt text, layout shift, style drift" },
+] as const;
+
+export function SlopMeter({ findings }: { findings: Finding[] }) {
+  const headline = findings.find((f) => f.check_key === "slop.score");
+  const ev = (headline?.evidence ?? {}) as SlopEvidence;
+  const score = typeof ev.score === "number" ? ev.score : null;
+  if (score === null) return null;
+
+  const grade = ev.grade ?? "";
+  const dims = ev.byDimension ?? {};
+  const totals = ev.totals ?? {};
+  // Lower is better here, which inverts the usual AEO dial.
+  const tone =
+    score <= 25 ? "var(--color-pass)" : score <= 50 ? "var(--color-warn)" : "var(--color-fail)";
+  const max = Math.max(1, ...DIMENSIONS.map((d) => dims[d.key] ?? 0));
+
+  return (
+    <div className="card space-y-5 p-4 sm:p-6">
+      <div className="flex flex-col gap-5 sm:flex-row sm:items-center sm:gap-8">
+        <div className="sm:flex-shrink-0">
+          <p className="text-xs uppercase tracking-wider text-[var(--color-muted)]">Slop Score</p>
+          <p className="mt-1 flex items-baseline gap-1.5">
+            <span className="text-5xl font-extrabold leading-none" style={{ color: tone }}>
+              {score}
+            </span>
+            <span className="text-sm text-[var(--color-muted)]">/ 100</span>
+          </p>
+          <p className="mt-1.5 text-sm font-semibold" style={{ color: tone }}>
+            {grade}
+          </p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div className="min-w-0 flex-1 space-y-3">
+          {/* Track runs low→high slop so the filled portion reads as "how much
+              slop", matching the number above it. */}
+          <div
+            className="h-2 w-full overflow-hidden rounded-full"
+            style={{ background: "var(--color-border)" }}
+            role="img"
+            aria-label={`Slop score ${score} out of 100 — ${grade}`}
+          >
+            <div
+              className="h-full rounded-full"
+              style={{ width: `${Math.max(2, score)}%`, background: tone }}
+            />
+          </div>
+          <div className="flex justify-between text-[10px] uppercase tracking-wider text-[var(--color-muted)]">
+            <span>0 — pristine</span>
+            <span>100 — maximum slop</span>
+          </div>
+          <p className="text-sm text-[var(--color-muted)]">
+            {[
+              typeof totals.pages === "number"
+                ? `${totals.pages} page${totals.pages === 1 ? "" : "s"} swept`
+                : null,
+              typeof totals.words === "number" ? `${totals.words.toLocaleString()} words` : null,
+              typeof totals.issues === "number"
+                ? `${totals.issues} issue${totals.issues === 1 ? "" : "s"}`
+                : null,
+            ]
+              .filter(Boolean)
+              .join(" · ")}
+          </p>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+
+      <div className="space-y-2.5 border-t border-[var(--color-border)] pt-4">
+        <p className="text-xs uppercase tracking-wider text-[var(--color-muted)]">
+          Slop points by dimension
+        </p>
+        {DIMENSIONS.map((d) => {
+          const v = dims[d.key] ?? 0;
+          return (
+            <div key={d.key} className="grid grid-cols-[5rem_1fr_2.5rem] items-center gap-3 text-sm">
+              <span className="font-medium">{d.label}</span>
+              <span className="h-1.5 w-full rounded-full" style={{ background: "var(--color-border)" }}>
+                <span
+                  className="block h-full rounded-full"
+                  style={{
+                    width: `${v === 0 ? 0 : Math.max(3, (v / max) * 100)}%`,
+                    background: "var(--color-accent)",
+                  }}
+                />
+              </span>
+              <span className="text-right tabular-nums text-[var(--color-muted)]">{v}</span>
+              <span className="col-span-3 -mt-1.5 text-xs text-[var(--color-muted)]">{d.hint}</span>
+            </div>
+          );
+        })}
+      </div>
+
+      <p className="border-t border-[var(--color-border)] pt-4 text-xs text-[var(--color-muted)]">
+        This measures <strong>observable defects</strong> — placeholder copy, near-duplicate pages,
+        leaked template variables, missing first-party evidence, stale dates, design drift. It does
+        not estimate whether anything was written by AI.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+  );
+}