The mutant dinosaur that hunts your bugs

grep + Reptar = Greptar. Find the mutations before they find you.

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Greptar is a mutation-based code verification server that speaks MCP. It hunts bugs by injecting mutations into your code and measuring whether your tests and reviews catch them.

Two modes, one scoring matrix:

• Semantic mutations — AI-crafted realistic bugs a human might actually write
• Mechanical mutations — automated operator swaps via cargo-mutants for breadth

What survives is what you should worry about.

How it works

                    ┌─────────────────────────────────┐
                    │         Scoring Matrix           │
                    ├──────────────┬───────────────────┤
                    │              │ Review catches it? │
                    │              ├────────┬──────────┤
                    │              │  Yes   │    No    │
                    ├──────────────┼────────┼──────────┤
                    │ Tests   Yes  │ Strong │ReviewGap │
                    │ catch   No   │TestGap │BlindSpot │
                    │ it?         │        │          │
                    └──────────────┴────────┴──────────┘

• Strong — both tests and review catch it. You're covered.
• TestGap — review catches it but tests don't. Write a test.
• ReviewGap — tests catch it but review missed it. Sharpen your eye.
• BlindSpot — nobody catches it. Highest priority.

Quick start

Prerequisites

• Rust (2024 edition)
• ripgrep (rg) — for the scan tool
• cargo-mutants — for the mutants tool (optional)

Build

cargo build --release

Configure your MCP client

Add to your MCP client config (e.g. Claude Code's settings.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "greptar": {
      "command": "/path/to/greptar/target/release/greptar",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Workflows

Semantic (depth — AI-crafted realistic bugs)

scan → read context → generate plan → plan → execute_plan → score

1. scan — discover mutation targets with ripgrep
2. Read surrounding context for each target
3. Generate a mutation plan (realistic bugs a human might write)
4. plan — load the mutation plan
5. execute_plan — run all mutations in one call (recommended) — or use the interactive loop: inject → test → record → revert
6. score — view the detection matrix

Mechanical (breadth — cargo-mutants operator swaps)

mutants → score

1. mutants — run cargo-mutants on specific files
2. score — view results (merged with any semantic results)

Both workflows feed the same scoring matrix. Run them together for depth + breadth.

Tools

Tool	Purpose	Phase
scan	Discover mutation targets via ripgrep	Idle → Scanned
plan	Load a mutation plan	Scanned → Planned
inject	Apply a mutation to the codebase	Planned → Injected
test	Run tests against injected mutation	Injected
record	Record test/review outcome	Injected
revert	Undo injected mutation via git	Injected → Planned
execute_plan	Batch-run all mutations automatically	Planned → Planned
mutants	Run cargo-mutants for mechanical mutations	Any* → Planned
score	View the detection matrix	Any
status	Check current phase	Any
reset	Clear state and start over	Any (not Injected)

State machine

Idle → (scan) → Scanned → (plan) → Planned → (inject) → Injected → (revert) → Planned
                                        ↑                                          │
                                        └──────────────────────────────────────────┘

The name

Reptar is a fictional mutant dinosaur from Rugrats — a radioactive T-Rex that's equal parts terrifying and beloved. Greptar is grep + Reptar: it greps through your code to find where mutations can hide, then stomps on the ones your tests miss.

Mutation testing is about finding what survives. Greptar makes sure nothing does.

License

MIT