Can an AI code detector distinguish boilerplate from AI code?

What boilerplate can mean in a report

Boilerplate is reusable code or wording that appears across files and projects. It can include standard error messages, routine setup, documentation patterns, and other repeated conventions. Repetition alone does not identify an author or a tool.

Is My Code AI shows a heuristic score, matched rules, and flagged lines. Its published rules include template-style defensive error text, comment patterns, long documentation-style comments, highly descriptive identifiers, repeated adjacent comments, and explicit AI-tool mentions in comments.

A matched rule is not a source claim

If a rule matches, the report is describing that pattern in the submitted code. It is not saying that the pattern was generated by AI, copied from a template, or written by any particular person.

A person can write a common pattern deliberately. A project can standardize it. An assistant can also produce it. The same visible code pattern can have more than one history, which a code-style heuristic cannot recover.

Review the surrounding project context

When a line is flagged, read the enclosing function and compare it with the repository's conventions, templates, and nearby code. That context can explain whether a pattern is routine for the project or needs a closer look.

Use the report as a review prompt rather than a verdict. It does not prove authorship, originality, or whether a specific AI product was used.

Keep source code on your device

Is My Code AI runs in the current browser. You can paste code, choose supported source files, or select a local folder; submitted code is not uploaded by this static site. The language picker supports Python, JavaScript, Java, C++, PHP, and C#.

Try the browser-based AI code detector to view matched rules and flagged lines in a local report.

For the same limitation when the question names a product, read whether an AI code detector can tell if ChatGPT or Copilot was used.