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Welcome to PyChase Wiki

PyChase is an advanced Python duplicate code detector and code similarity tool that hunts down structurally similar functions, methods, and classes across your codebase. By parsing source code into normalized Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) fingerprints, it detects hidden clones even when variable names, strings, literal values, and docstrings have been completely changed.

Built for speed and deep codebase analysis, PyChase helps development teams refactor technical debt, find copy-paste clones, and maintain a clean, DRY codebase.

Quick Links

Page	Description
Getting Started	Install and run PyChase on your project
CLI Reference	Complete command-line options reference
Configuration	Project configuration via pyproject.toml
How It Works	AST normalization, MinHash, LSH explained
Demo Test Suite	14 progressive test files with results
Comparison	PyChase vs dry4python, jscpd, SonarQube, PMD CPD
CI/CD & Workflows	GitHub Actions setup and automation

Key Features

• AST-level analysis — not tokens, not lines, full Python AST with normalization
• Three clone types — exact (Type-1), renamed (Type-2), modified (Type-3)
• Multi-granularity — functions, methods, and classes in one pass
• MinHash + LSH — near-linear scaling to 100k+ units
• Multiple output formats — text, JSON, CSV, HTML (interactive)
• Zero dependencies — pure Python, one pip install