URL: /rules/integrity/template-discontinuity

---
title: "Template Discontinuity"
description: "Detects pages whose markup diverges hard from the site's common template"
---

Detects pages whose markup diverges hard from the site's common template — a standalone page with none of the site's theme is a classic injected-page signal.

| | |
|---|---|
| **Rule ID** | `integrity/template-discontinuity` |
| **Category** | [Site Integrity](/rules/integrity) |
| **Scope** | Site-wide |
| **Severity** | warning |
| **Weight** | 6/10 |

## How it works

The rule fingerprints every crawled page on stable theme markers — shared stylesheets, asset hosts, body classes, CSS custom properties, and the presence of a nav and footer — then builds a baseline from the markers shared by the majority of pages (your theme). Pages whose similarity to that baseline falls below the threshold are reported.

A lone off-theme page is reported as **info** (it might be a legitimate off-theme landing page). It escalates to a **failure** only when the divergent page also carries page-level compromise signals (brand impersonation, an obfuscated script, an auth overlay, or doorway content) — the correlation gating that keeps false positives down.

## Solution

A page that shares almost none of your site's theme (no shared stylesheets, asset hosts, nav/footer, or CSS variables) may be an injected standalone page rather than something your CMS produced. Confirm the page is one you created; if not, treat the site as compromised: remove the page, audit recently modified files, and check server access logs. Legitimate off-theme landing pages should still load your shared assets.

## Options

| Option | Default | Description |
|--------|---------|-------------|
| `minPages` | `4` | Minimum pages needed to establish a reliable baseline |
| `similarityThreshold` | `0.2` | Pages below this similarity to the baseline are flagged |

```toml squirrel.toml
[rules."integrity/template-discontinuity"]
minPages = 4
similarityThreshold = 0.2
```

## Enable / Disable

### Disable this rule

```toml squirrel.toml
[rules]
disable = ["integrity/template-discontinuity"]
```

### Disable all Site Integrity rules

```toml squirrel.toml
[rules]
disable = ["integrity/*"]
```

### Enable only this rule

```toml squirrel.toml
[rules]
enable = ["integrity/template-discontinuity"]
disable = ["*"]
```