I love F-Droid. I love what F-Droid stands for and I like the freedom that it gives its users. As a FOSS app maintainer I also have nothing but good things to say about the people behind the project. Maybe they’re even a bit too nice, considering how many times repro has failed due to me forgetting to commit before building 😅.
But my god is it hard to find human-written software now.
Intro
The problem
Sometimes I open F-Droid just to browse. You know, maybe I’ll find an app that solves a problem I didn’t know I had, or maybe I’ll find a better alternative to something I already use.
And one day, while browsing, I noticed an app with an obvious and ugly AI generated icon. It’s not on the list and I will not shame it, but it got me thinking. How much of F-Droid is AI?
As someone who does programming for fun and is only a student, untarnished by honest work, I get my knowledge of what the coding world is like mostly from clickbaity YT videos and Reddit posts of CS professionals. They either describe LLMs as god reincarnate or as glorified autocomplete.
Both are, obviously, wrong, but that’s not really helpful in determining what I want to know. What is the actual state of programming nowadays? Whenever I use FOSS software, how likely it is that it has been vibe-coded by a rando in an afternoon?
How to know if an app is vibe-coded?
That’s the trick—you can’t. Text just doesn’t carry enough meta information for any kind of assessments to be even close to accurate. However, just as that em-dash I used in the first sentence probably triggered an alarm in your brain, there are signs.
While that does make the task at hand sound fickle and dependent on happenstance, the signs, especially concerning LLM code repositories, are never too hard to find.
You see, the main allure of LLMs is that they allow the developer to be more lazy. That’s kind of the whole point! You just prompt, sit back and relax. So it should not surprise you to hear that this attitude is then reflected in everything the vibe-coder touches.
Why write a README from scratch? Lol, just let the LLM do it.
Do code-review? Naw, just let the LLM review its own changes and then also give it access to the repo so you don’t even need to press the commit button.
If a project was concerned with looking legitimate, it would be trivial to do such things by hand. But it’s low effort all the way down.
My biases
This part can be skipped if you don’t care about my stance on LLMs, but I need to make my position clear to avoid contributing to the circlejerk too much.
To begin with, I’d like to acknowledge that LLMs are incredibly useful and capable. As 2026 has progressed, this has become more and more visible, but people being able to one-shot medium scale games and software in half an hour is ridiculously impressive, even if the end product is usually not very good.
I also am very much in favor of software getting faster and more secure. The story of the Linux kernel development has shown that LLMs are capable of finding and sometimes even solving many types of code issues.
With the pleasantries out of the way though, I have to admit I really hate LLMs and what they have done to programming, related engineering fields, and society as a whole.
Their mere existence makes educating yourself and going on fun side projects much less rewarding. Like yeah, I did something, but with an LLM I could have done this in a quarter of the time. And when you do take the black pill and vibe-code, it’s even worse. It’s not like you did anything. The machine did that.
Then there’s the atrophying effects on human brains, their unfathomable capability for serving plausibly sounding misinformation and the climate disaster that we’re just kinda ignoring. All very fun things to think about.
Criteria / The experiment
As mentioned before, there’s no way to effectively detect slop, so I propose a rough 3 tier system based on the aesthetics of the repo:
- Mostly AI
- This is mostly for projects that have significant LLM smells and means I expect >50% of the code is LLM authored. Any kind of agentic infrastructure automatically lands an app in this tier as I do not believe it is possible to use AI responsibly from within a coding harness.
- Hard to say / Mostly human / Other
- Occasional LLM commits either by maintainers or contributors, but mostly looks human. May have an LLM policy which permits certain uses. This tag means I expect <50% of the code is LLM authored.
- No signs of AI
- Could not find anything suspicious/Has a strict LLM policy.
Note that my rating will still be quite superficial and the tiers quite loose. I did not build a “slop detector” or anything like that, so my decisions are based on looking at recent commits and their content along with the project’s branding.
Also note that since I have no way of knowing for sure, there may be errors. I still believe most of my findings to be accurate however.
I will also not look at the history of the app. If it has existed since 2014 but recent commits are LLM authored it will be categorized as “mostly AI”
The apps chosen were the batch of updates pushed to F-Droid on September 12, 2026. That amounted to 102 apps, which was quite a lot of work for me to go through.😅
If you just want the results, feel free to skip to the results
Apps
Amber
Description: Nostr event signer for Android
Repository: https://github.com/greenart7c3/Amber
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: All recent commits were done with LLM, PRs accepted from agents, Claude Code and Codex infrastructure present.
Aria for Misskey
Repository: https://github.com/poppingmoon/aria
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: This is a hard one as commit naming and structure felt a bit suspicious, but I did not see anything else and decided to err on the side of caution
Atmo Engine
Repository: https://github.com/saad-khan-rind/nosatmosphereeffect
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: Heavy emoji usage in the README, but otherwise nothing looks suspicious.
Aves Libre
Repository: https://github.com/deckerst/aves
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: Nothing looked suspicious
Balance
Repository: https://github.com/AshkanRafiee/balance
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Code and commits exhibit various AI smells.
Baly Groceries Tracker
Repository: https://github.com/rw-account/baly_groceries_tracker
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Code and commits exhibit various AI smells.
Bati: Fitness RPG
Repository: https://github.com/Guiforge/bati
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: AI disclosure in README (Thanks for making it easy :D)
BayesianBahn
Repository: https://github.com/DerWeh/BayesianBahn
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: All commits are Claude co-authored. Though it’s really funny how Deutsche Bahn sucks so hard it has enticed people to vibe-code unofficial timetables.
BeatBridge: Bluetooth Music
Repository: https://github.com/brandonp2412/BeatBridge
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Includes Claude Code contributions, quite a lot of the commits look to be at least AI
Binary Eye
Repository: https://github.com/markusfisch/BinaryEye
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: Nothing suspicious
BlockDrop: Block Puzzle
Repository: https://github.com/brandonp2412/BlockDrop
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Has infrastructure for LLMs, Claude co-authored commits.
Braincup - Brain Training
Repository: https://github.com/SimonSchubert/Braincup
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: All recent commits are Claude co-authored
BVD
Repository: https://github.com/KafuuNeko/BiliDownload
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: All recent commits look LLM authored
CaptureCap
Repository: https://github.com/yepgoryo/CaptureCap
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Has an AI disclosure listing files written with LLM help
Casio G-Shock Smart Sync
Repository: https://github.com/izivkov/CasioGShockSmartSync
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: AI artifacts such as planning .md files pushed to repo.
Chompass - Calorie Tracker
Repository: https://codeberg.org/fitguy/chompass
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Recent commits look AI authored. Note that this repository is hosted on Codeberg and likely violates their terms of use.
DeltaSync
Repository: https://gitlab.com/Star95/keepass-deltasync
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: All recent commits co-authored by Claude Opus 5
DuressKeyboard
Repository: https://github.com/pofesk0/lastcodeduresskeyboard
Rating: ???
Justification: This may be the most confusing repo I’ve ever seen lol. Has been in development since November of 2025, but the owner doesn’t seem to know how to use git??? All the commits have seemingly been done by copy pasting the change code by hand through the GitHub web file editor. Quite bizarre!
eQuran
Repository: https://github.com/ya27hw/equran_app
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Has infrastructure for agents; most recent commit looks LLM generated.
evcc - solar charging
Repository: https://github.com/evcc-io/app
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Agent infrastructure; Claude co-authorship of commits; even commits without explict co-authorship look largely LLM generated.
Fechtkarte
Repository: https://github.com/J0s3f/Fechtkarte
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Agent infrastructure; commits and code look LLM generated
Feeder
Repository: https://github.com/spacecowboy/Feeder
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent code commits look LLM generated, accepted PRs from agents. Quite unfortunate, as this is the first app in this list that I actually use, but it works.
Felicity Music Player
Repository: https://github.com/Hamza417/Felicity
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Several commits I checked exhibit signs of heavy LLM use.
FixupXer - URL Enhancer
Repository: https://github.com/NeatCode-Labs/fixupxer
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: AI generated icon + all recent commits look LLM generated.
Flexify: Gym Workout Log
Repository: https://github.com/brandonp2412/Flexify
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Lot of LLM infrastructure; code looks almost entirely AI.
Forkyz
Repository: https://gitlab.com/Hague/forkyz
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look entirely LLM generated.
Gem Wallet: Bitcoin, USDT, BNB
Repository: https://github.com/gemwalletcom/wallet
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look entirely LLM generated.
GeoWeather
Repository: https://github.com/FreetimeMaker/GeoWeather
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look LLM generated.
GitHub Trending & Hacker News
Repository: https://github.com/HarlonWang/TrendingAI
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: All recent commits Claude co-authored.
GPTMobile
Repository: https://github.com/Taewan-P/gpt_mobile
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look LLM generated.
GymMane
Repository: https://github.com/InlitX/GymMane
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: README got that LLM emoji vomit; recent commits look AI
Harp
Repository: https://git.sr.ht/~lepisma/harp-kmp
Rating: Not sure
Justification: My browser could not get through the sourcehut bot-detection test for some reason, so I was unable to check code. Saw one commit co-authored by Claude, status of others remains unknown.
Hue Spill
Repository: https://github.com/sidhant947/HueSpill
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Very new, only few commits. UI looks vibe-coded though and UI is all this game has.
invoice, quote, delivery note
Repository: https://github.com/gatesuperapp/g8-invoicing
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: All recent commits look entirely AI generated
KeyStoreViewer
Repository: https://github.com/qdsfdhvh/KeyStoreViewer
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look entirely AI generated.
kitshn (for Tandoor)
Repository: https://github.com/kitshn-app/kitshn
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look entirely AI generated.
Klick'r - Smart AutoClicker
Repository: https://github.com/Nain57/Smart-AutoClicker
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: Nothing looks suspicious
Lens HRV
Repository: https://github.com/LensHRV/lenshrv-app
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Born from one +10k LOC “init” commit. 2 remaining commits look LLM authored
Léon – The URL Cleaner
Repository: https://github.com/leon-cleaning-services/leon
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look entirely LLM generated.
LetterBox
Repository: https://gitlab.com/muelli/letterbox
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look entirely AI generated.
Libre Contacts Backup
Repository: https://github.com/AshkanRafiee/Libre-Contacts-Backup
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: All recent commits look entirely AI generated.
Lissen: Audiobookshelf client
Repository: https://github.com/GrakovNe/lissen-android/
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look entirely AI generated.
MainTask
Repository: https://codeberg.org/kapoue/MainTask
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: All recent commits co-authored by Claude Sonnet 5. Note that this repository is hosted on Codeberg and likely violates their terms of use.
Mako
Repository: https://github.com/rama-io/mako
Rating: Mostly Human
Justification: I see some commits that look LLM generated, but others look human. Let’s err on the side of caution.
MarketMonk: Stock Tracker
Repository: https://github.com/brandonp2412/MarketMonk
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look entirely LLM generated.
Markleaf
Repository: https://github.com/jeiel85/markleaf-android
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look entirely LLM generated.
MateDroid
Repository: https://github.com/vide/matedroid
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look entirely LLM generated.
Materialious
Repository: https://github.com/Materialious/Materialious
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: Only a brief look, but nothing jumped out as suspicious.
MetaGer: Search & Browser
Repository: https://gitlab.metager.de/metager/metager-app
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look entirely LLM generated.
Mihrab: Prayer Times & Quran
Repository: https://github.com/Hassan-PS/Mihrab
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look entirely LLM generated.
Minesweeper
Repository: https://github.com/john-athan/minesweeper
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look entirely AI generated. So does the UI.
MinkLauncher OpenSource
Repository: https://github.com/katoaapps/openminilaunch
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: Was suspicious about the incredibly verbose README, but could not find anything else.
motd
Repository: https://github.com/trevarj/motd
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look entirely LLM generated.
N-Zik
Repository: https://github.com/N-Zik-Group/N-Zik
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look entirely LLM generated.
neutriNote CE
Repository: https://github.com/appml/neutrinote
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: Found nothing.
Nextcloud
Repository: https://github.com/nextcloud/android
Rating: Mostly Human
Justification: Has LLM infrastructure, but most commits look human.
Nextcloud Pantry
Repository: https://github.com/chenasraf/pantry-flutter
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look entirely AI generated. So does the UI.
NFC Alarm Clock
Repository: https://github.com/gabeg805/NFC-Alarm-Clock
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated.
NouTube
Repository: https://github.com/nonbili/NouTube
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated.
NovaDial
Repository: https://github.com/dhilipmpms/NovaDial
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: Nothing looks off at a quick glance.
Offline Translator
Repository: https://github.com/DavidVentura/offline-translator
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: Nothing looks off at a quick glance.
OPNsense Manager
Repository: https://github.com/Etregin/OPNsense_Manager
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated.
PCAPdroid
Repository: https://github.com/emanuele-f/PCAPdroid
Rating: Almost no signs of AI
Justification: Some commits include LLM created translations, however they are disclosed and few and far between
Personal Stuff
Repository: https://github.com/rh-id/a-personal-stuff
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated.
Phylax
Repository: https://github.com/sfortis/phylax
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated.
PingOff
Repository: https://gitlab.com/juanitobananas/ping-off
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; most commits look entirely LLM generated.
PipePipe
Repository: https://github.com/InfinityLoop1308/PipePipe
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated.
PlainApp: Phone Web Portal
Repository: https://github.com/plainhub/plain-app
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated.
Privacy Flip
Repository: https://github.com/dorumrr/privacyflip
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated.
Queens
Repository: https://github.com/sidhant947/queens
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated.
ReadBear
Repository: https://github.com/Tulis12/ReadBear
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: Some commits look a bit suspicious, but at a glance I did not see any obvious signs of explicit LLM usage.
Relatrix
Repository: https://github.com/saad-ibra/gray-matter
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated.
ReteClock
Repository: https://github.com/rubidus-api/reteclock_apk
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: All recent commits are AI generated.
ReteKey
Repository: https://github.com/rubidus-api/retekey_apk
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: All recent commits are AI generated.
Share To InputStick
Repository: https://github.com/TheLastProject/ShareToInputStick
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: Nothing suspicious
Shattered Pixel Dungeon
Repository: https://github.com/00-Evan/shattered-pixel-dungeon
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: Some stuff looks a bit sus, but found nothing serious.
ShelfDroid
Repository: https://github.com/100nandoo/shelfdroid
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look entirely LLM generated.
ShizuWall
Repository: https://github.com/AhmetCanArslan/ShizuWall
Rating: Mostly Human
Justification: Found some evidence of AI usage, however nothing that looks too widespread.
Simple Notes Sync
Repository: https://github.com/inventory69/simple-notes-sync
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated.
Sky Map
Repository: https://github.com/sky-map-team/stardroid
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look entirely LLM generated.
Snowdrop
Repository: https://github.com/ihateblueb/snowdrop
Rating: Mostly Human
Justification: Some evidence of AI use, but it looks limited.
Suntimes Calendars
Repository: https://github.com/forrestguice/SuntimesCalendars
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: Nothing looks suspicious
TacticMaster
Repository: https://github.com/jazzm0/tactic-master
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: Nothing looks suspicious
Tallybook
Repository: https://github.com/herrerad85/tallybook
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated.
Tasks.org: Open-source To-Do Lists & Reminders
Repository: https://github.com/tasks/tasks
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: Nothing looks suspicious
Terminator
Repository: https://github.com/8dmusichannels-star/terminator
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated.
TigerDuck
Repository: https://github.com/tigerduck-app/tigerduck-app-android
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look entirely LLM generated.
TimeLimit.io
Repository: https://codeberg.org/timelimit/timelimit-android
Rating: No signs of AI
Justification: Nothing looks suspicious
Timety
Repository: https://github.com/Benji377/Timety
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated.
trale
Repository: https://github.com/QuantumPhysique/trale
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look mostly LLM generated.
Tuisku
Repository: https://github.com/omaawr/tuisku
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look mostly LLM generated.
Unciv
Repository: https://github.com/yairm210/Unciv
Rating: Mostly Human
Justification: Some commits co-authored by Claude, but a bunch of others look human.
Universal Installer
Repository: https://github.com/pass-with-high-score/universal-installer
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look mostly LLM generated.
UnlicenseLauncher
Repository: https://github.com/sirdeepsleep/UnlicenseLauncher
Rating: ???
Justification: Looks to be a repeat of “DuressKeyboard”. Quite a bizarre repo, but it looks like the accounts are different.
Victoria Launcher
Repository: https://github.com/adelmonte/victoria-launcher
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated.
Voxscribe - Offline Voice Input
Repository: https://codeberg.org/y20k/voxscribe
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated. Note that this repository is hosted on Codeberg and likely violates their terms of use.
Water Sort
Repository: https://github.com/sidhant947/water-sort
Rating: Not sure
Justification: README shows lots of AI signs, but I did not see anything too suspicious in code.
WaveUp
Repository: https://gitlab.com/juanitobananas/wave-up/tree/HEAD
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; most commits look entirely LLM generated.
Wikipedia
Repository: https://github.com/wikimedia/apps-android-wikipedia
Rating: Mostly Human
Justification: Most commits look human made, but there’s quite a lot of claude infrastructure. I know! I thought Wikipedia would be an easy pass too!
Wristotle Companion
Repository: https://codeberg.org/wristotle/wristotle-companion
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated. Note that this repository is hosted on Codeberg and likely violates their terms of use.
Xime IME
Repository: https://github.com/ximeiorg/Xime
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: LLM infrastructure; recent commits look mostly LLM generated.
Yubico Authenticator
Repository: https://github.com/Yubico/yubioath-flutter
Rating: Mostly AI
Justification: Most recent commits look AI generated.
Some interesting observations
brandonp2412
While going through the apps I noticed one user named brandonp2412 maintaining quite a few in this update cycle. Of course, all entirely vibe-coded.
That wouldn’t be that much of a surprise, however they all seem to be under widely different namespaces. Some are just the app name, but some are quite confusing: “com.presley.*” or “com.codesail.*”.
Either they’re just a very avid vibe-coder, or they’re one of those agents that have been given a GitHub account for some reason.
Codeberg
Out of the 5 apps hosted on Codeberg, 4 are mostly AI generated and thus likely violate Codeberg’s AI policy.
The “Don’t tread on me” apps
I also noticed a pair of very bizarre apps, both branded with the yellow “Don’t tread on me” flag.
DuressKeyboard & UnlicenseLauncher
What’s most curious is that they have been in development for quite some time, yet all the changes are done not with git but through the GitHub web file editor!
Someone go find that person and teach them to use git😭😭.
Statistics & Conclusion
Out of 102 apps:
74 were largely written by AI (72.5%)
10 were hard to categorize one way or another (9.8%)
18 showed little to no signs of AI involvement (17.6%)
Really not sure how to cope with these numbers though.
On one hand, some seem to have quite a few users. And if people are having their lives improved by using said software, who am I to say “no”?
On the other hand, I’m really concerned about what the data means for the FOSS community as a whole.
I explicitly did not do any code quality analysis as that would have taken much more time and would have probably been out of my skill level anyway, but I am curious about the robustness and maintainability of the 72%.
Just for fun I also checked a few of the FOSS apps I actually use and quite a few showed signs of heavy LLM usage.
I’ll still use them, as I find them useful, but this whole experiment has left me feeling quite conflicted.
I know how to fix this though:
Hey Claude, make a load-bearing time machine set to 2016 – a time when I was a happy kid, nothing bad ever happened and all was good in FOSS-land.
Make no mistakes
