fix: treat ambiguous paths like /tools/ and /migrations/ as production inside source roots

[skoshx]

Summary

Fixes #1724

Rules tagged test-noise (332 of 884 rules) were silently skipping files in paths containing /tools/, /migrations/, /scripts/, /cli/, /bin/, /generators/, /devtools/, etc., even when nested inside application source roots like src/components/tools/. This caused false negatives where legitimate production code was not being scanned.

Root Cause

The isTestlikeFilename heuristic treated these directory names as universally non-production. While this is correct at the repo root (where tools/ is typically build tooling), it's incorrect inside application source roots where src/components/tools/ is often a feature area (e.g., an admin tools section).

The Fix

The heuristic now distinguishes between two categories of path segments:

Unambiguous non-production (always skipped)

Test/fixture/story/benchmark/demo/examples directories that are never shipped code, regardless of depth:

• /test/, /tests/, /__tests__/, /fixtures/, /stories/, etc.
• /demo/, /demos/, /examples/, /example/
• /playground/, /benchmarks/, /e2e/, etc.

Component library demos (/demo/, /examples/) remain unambiguous because even when nested in component source (e.g., components/Button/demos/), they're demonstration code, not production.

Ambiguous build tooling (only skipped at repo root)

Directories that mark build tooling at the repo root but can be feature areas inside source roots:

• /tools/, /scripts/, /cli/, /bin/, /tooling/
• /migrations/, /migration/, /generators/, /generator/
• /codemods/, /codemod/, /runbooks/, /devtools/
• /seeds/, /seed/, /dev-seeder/, /internal-tools/

These are now only skipped when the file is NOT within a source root (/src/, /app/, /components/, /pages/, /lib/, etc.).

Examples

Before this fix:

• src/components/tools/widget.tsx → skipped (false negative)
• src/admin/migrations/history.tsx → skipped (false negative)
• tools/build-script.ts → skipped ✅

After this fix:

• src/components/tools/widget.tsx → scanned ✅
• src/admin/migrations/history.tsx → scanned ✅
• tools/build-script.ts → skipped ✅
• components/Button/demos/demo1.tsx → skipped ✅ (component library demo)

Testing

• ✅ Reproduced the reported issue with byte-identical files in src/components/chat/ (scanned) vs src/components/tools/ (skipped before, now scanned)
• ✅ Added comprehensive unit tests covering all ambiguous and unambiguous segments
• ✅ All existing tests pass
• ✅ Validated that component library demos remain correctly skipped

Validation

Running parity check with react-doctor-evals to ensure no unexpected regressions across the OSS corpus. Will update with results.

  

[pkg-pr-new]

Open in StackBlitz

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/eslint-plugin-react-doctor@1727

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/oxlint-plugin-react-doctor@1727

npm i https://pkg.pr.new/react-doctor@1727

commit: d16a367

[github-actions]

Interactive terminal E2E

Terminal Control verified the built CLI at d16a367 in a real PTY:

• selected a project interactively and observed Scanning... before the three-second Git delay completed
• waited for the clean result and exercised the compact report
• opened copy context and the GitHub Actions confirmation, then cancelled safely

Download the edited MP4 and PNG evidence