A machine

2.0 beta. On the v2 branch the machine check is the polinrider binary. The three per-system scripts under machine-cleanup/ are gone: macOS, Linux and Windows are checked by the same code, through one tested boundary. See the decisions, ADR-0026, ADR-0029 and ADR-0038.

Read-only unless you say otherwise. Check every machine that has touched the affected repositories, before you touch GitHub at all.

polinrider

That is the guided flow: it asks what to check, one question at a time, and changes nothing unless you type yes. Choose computer.

Without the questions:

polinrider check ~/code

A check of this computer and of that folder. It moves nothing. Add --apply to move confirmed artifacts into quarantine. --fs-only checks the folder alone and reads nothing of the machine, which is what you want for a backup drive or a mounted image.

What it looks at

The second-stage implant first: its files, its process, and on Windows its scheduled task and Run entry. Then editor extensions, editor tasks that run on folder open, build configs, fake fonts, the script the payload spreads with, known-bad packages, what starts by itself, shell startup files and PowerShell profiles, git hooks, npm configuration, interpreters running inline code and live connections. Last, an inventory of the keys and credential files that would have to be changed if anything else is confirmed. They are counted and named, and never opened.

“What starts by itself” depends on the system:

System	Read
Linux	systemd units, autostart entries, the user crontab, system cron
macOS	LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons, the user crontab
Windows	registry Run and RunOnce values, both Startup folders, scheduled tasks

What changes, and when

Nothing is ever deleted.

• polinrider check --apply moves confirmed artifacts into a timestamped quarantine directory with a manifest and instructions for putting them back. It never edits a file.
• polinrider clean DIR --apply does that and one thing more: where the payload was appended to a build config, it cuts the payload out in place and keeps the infected original in quarantine. Your own uncommitted work in that file survives. It does not touch git.
• A crontab line, a shell startup file, a PowerShell profile, a Run entry and a scheduled task are never changed for you. The finding carries the command that removes it.

Large disks

node_modules, .git, caches and trash are never walked. Malicious packages are caught by name from manifests and lockfiles, and the payload lives in the project’s own files rather than inside a dependency. See ADR-0025 for what that misses.

A long check shows how far it has come. 2.0 does not checkpoint a scan: there is no --resume, and ADR-0030 says why.

Exit codes

0 clean against today’s indicators, 1 something needs a human look, 2 a confirmed indicator, 3 the check could not run. 3 says nothing about whether you are infected.