Boy Scout Policy

Require cleanups on files or lines you changed.

With the default settings, you can change a file that already has errors and still merge. Old errors stay hidden, so fixing them as you go is hard.

Boy Scout Policy is stricter. For the files or lines you changed on this branch, bsr ignores the baseline. It reports every error in that area.

Save settings in the baseline

{
  "version": 2,
  "config": {
    "boy_scout_policy": "hunk",
    "base_ref": "origin/main"
  },
  "entries": []
}

Then you can run:

<lint-command> | bsr check

If you pass flags on the command line, they override the baseline config:

<lint-command> | bsr check --boy-scout-policy file

Policies

Policy	What it does	When to use it
`off` (default)	Baseline applies to the whole project	Normal baseline use
`file`	Baseline is ignored for changed files	If you edit a file, fix all errors in that file
`hunk`	Baseline is ignored only on changed lines	Only the lines you edited must be clean (good for large files)
`scope`	Planned — per function or method	If you edit a function, fix that function

If the policy is not off, you must pass --base-ref (often origin/main), or save it in baseline config.

Command examples

# Report all errors in changed files
<lint-command> | bsr check --boy-scout-policy file --base-ref origin/main

# Report errors only on changed lines
<lint-command> | bsr check --boy-scout-policy hunk --base-ref origin/main

Which settings win?

For bsr check, settings are chosen in this order:

CLI flags (--boy-scout-policy, --base-ref), if you pass them
Baseline config
Defaults (off, and no base_ref)

How bsr finds changes

bsr runs:

git diff --unified=0 <base-ref>...HEAD
git diff --cached --unified=0

It combines both results. Then it turns off baseline hiding in those areas. This includes commits on the branch and staged changes.