Read 2026-10-23
simstudioai/sim: technical due diligence, read from its repository
What Borehole read in simstudioai/sim's code and history at df3db64: its licence, security advisories, releases, review practice, tests, dependencies and operations. Every finding cites the file and line it rests on. The full report also covers the team and asks the questions the code cannot answer.
| Dimension | Rating |
|---|---|
| Architecture & Codebase — including AI provenance | strong |
| Engineering Process & SDLC Maturity | adequate |
| Product & Engineering Maturity | adequate |
| Security & Reliability Posture | adequate |
| Observability & Operations | adequate |
| Fit with the Acquirer | not assessable |
What the repository says
- Releases are cut from another branch than the one surveyed
apps/sim/ee/LICENSE: Part of the code is under a separate licence: apps/sim/ee/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md:329: states a policy on AI-generated contributions
Architecture & Codebase — including AI provenance
strongapps/sim/components/icons.tsx is 10,350 lines, 136× this codebase's median file
adequateThe median source file here is 76 lines. 371 files exceed 1,000 lines, the largest being 10,350. Size is not a defect on its own — some problems genuinely live in one place — but these are where merge conflicts, review fatigue and single-owner knowledge concentrate, and they are the first thing that slows an inheriting engineer down.
apps/sim/components/icons.tsx:1 — 10,350 lines (136× median) |
packages/db/schema.ts:1 — 8,590 lines (113× median) |
apps/sim/providers/models.ts:1 — 6,899 lines (90× median) |
apps/sim/lib/pptx-renderer/shapes/presets.ts:1 — 6,483 lines (85× median) |
apps/sim/blocks/blocks/cloudflare.ts:1 — 5,902 lines (77× median) |
Engineering Process & SDLC Maturity
adequate14% of recent commits change more than 2,000 lines
adequate1063 of 7459 commits in the last 24 months changed over 2,000 lines of code, not counting reformatting, renames, vendored or generated code. A change that size is rarely reviewed line by line. Ask how they were reviewed, and what made them that large.
| 1063 commits over 2,000 lines |
Product & Engineering Maturity
adequate228 direct dependencies in a single manifest
adequateapps/sim/package.json declares 228 direct dependencies. Each one is a maintenance obligation, a supply-chain surface and a potential licence question that transfers with the asset. The count says nothing about whether any given dependency was a good choice; it says how many such choices a buyer inherits.
apps/sim/package.json — 228 declared |
apps/realtime/package.json — 20 declared |
apps/desktop/package.json — 14 declared |
packages/workflow-persistence/package.json — 6 declared |
Releases are cut from another branch than the one surveyed
adequateThe newest release, v1.0.0, is not on the branch this survey read; the newest release on it is v0.9.32. The shipped product may differ from what this report describes. Survey the release branch too.
| tag v1.0.0 |
Security & Reliability Posture
adequate202 dependencies float, and no lockfile is committed
adequateDependency versions are declared as ranges and no lockfile is committed, so a build today does not necessarily produce what a build last month produced. That matters twice over in a transaction: the thing being bought cannot be reproduced exactly, and a compromised upstream release arrives without anyone choosing to take it.
apps/desktop/package.json:12 — >=1.4.2 |
apps/desktop/package.json:13 — >=20.0.0 |
apps/desktop/package.json:55 — ^19 |
apps/desktop/package.json:56 — ^19 |
apps/desktop/package.json:60 — ^26.0.0 |
The build runs third-party code it does not pin
adequate1 step pipes a download straight into a shell. Tags have been moved to malicious commits in real supply-chain attacks, and a piped script is whatever the server returns that minute. Pinning to a commit is the fix, and it is small.
.github/workflows/disk-gc.yml:52 — download piped into a shell |
3 shell commands built from strings
adequate3 places run a command through a shell (`shell=True`, `os.system`, `exec` with a template) rather than passing arguments. Where any part comes from outside, it is command injection. Ask where each one's input comes from.
packages/cli/src/index.ts:188 — command run through a shell |
packages/cli/src/index.ts:189 — command run through a shell |
packages/cli/src/index.ts:296 — command run through a shell |
18 places insert HTML from a variable without sanitising it
adequate18 places set HTML from a value that is neither a literal nor passed through a sanitiser. Where the value can come from a user, that is stored cross-site scripting, and it is the first thing a buyer's security review looks for in a frontend.
apps/sim/app/(landing)/components/json-ld/json-ld.tsx:47 — HTML from a variable |
apps/sim/app/_shell/public-env-script.tsx:65 — HTML from a variable |
apps/sim/app/layout.tsx:102 — HTML from a variable |
The production build publishes source maps
adequateThe build configuration emits source maps for production, so the original source, with its comments and structure, is downloadable by every visitor. Upload them to an error tracker and keep them off the public server instead.
apps/sim/next.config.ts:34 — source maps in a production build |
Part of the code is under a separate licence: apps/sim/ee/
adequateA directory named for a paid edition carries its own licence. That code is usually not open source even where the rest is; what the buyer may do with each part differs.
apps/sim/ee/LICENSE — licence: unrecognised |
1 advisory against this project in the last 24 months
adequateThe newest was published on 2025-09-08. A project that publishes advisories is telling its users about its fixes, and the count and pace say how much security work it carries.
| 2025-09-08: GHSA-g4c9-f287-64xg (moderate): SimStudioAI: A function in route.ts is vulnerable to Code Injection |
Observability & Operations
adequateNo structured logging library is in use
adequateNothing references a structured logging library. Logs that are written to be read by a person are not searchable by a machine, which means incident response here is proportional to how well someone remembers the codebase rather than to what the tooling can find.
| searched 10,089 files for 10 structured logging libraries; 0 matched |
Sends usage data to telemetry.simstudio.ai by default
adequateapps/sim/lib/monitoring/otlp.ts sends to telemetry.simstudio.ai, and apps/sim/lib/api/contracts/user.ts leaves reporting on as shipped. Every installation reports to the vendor unless its operator turns this off. For a buyer running it inside their own product, that is an outbound data flow to a third party: ask what is sent, how often, and whether the buyer's customers were told.
apps/sim/lib/monitoring/otlp.ts:34 — reports to telemetry.simstudio.ai |
apps/sim/lib/api/contracts/user.ts:139 — the reporting setting is on by default |
The code branches on the environment's name at 27 places
adequate27 places outside configuration test whether they are running in production or staging. Staging then does not exercise production's code, and each deploy is the first run of those branches. Differences belong in configuration the code reads, not in the code.
apps/realtime/src/env.ts:36 — branch on the environment name |
apps/sim/app/(auth)/verify/page.tsx:2 — branch on the environment name |
apps/sim/app/(auth)/verify/page.tsx:19 — branch on the environment name |
Fit with the Acquirer
not assessableNot rated: structurally not assessable from a repository.
Read more, or read your own
The full report on simstudioai/sim: every dimension, the questions for the room, and the audit log.
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