wtf is ast-taint?

ast-taint is an experimental tool that aims to help developers trace how data flows through a web application. The core idea is that you can pick a specific piece of data, like a value returned from an API call, and then see everywhere that data ends up, from the state management system all the way to the user interface components that display it. At a high level, it works by analyzing your code's structure. You provide a known piece of data (a "fixture"), and the tool traces its path as it gets passed around. For example, it can track how a raw API response gets packaged into an action object, how that action updates the application's state, and finally, which UI components are connected to that specific piece of state. The README refers to this as "tainting" a piece of data, meaning it marks that data and then watches how that mark spreads through the codebase. This tool would be useful for developers working with React and Redux who need to understand complex, interconnected code. If a developer changes an API response and wants to know exactly which parts of the user interface will be affected before they ship the change, this tool could provide that map. It helps answer the question: "If I change this data, what breaks?" The project is very much in the idea or conceptual phase. The README outlines the intended approach but notes that the implementation will require walking through "AST nodes," which means analyzing the code's underlying structure to track data flow. There is no indication of a finished, usable product yet, it is primarily a blueprint for how this data-tracing capability could be built.