Managing the baseline

How to update .bsr-baseline.json.

.bsr-baseline.json lists old lint errors that you allow for now. Commit it. Try to make it smaller over time. Avoid adding new entries without a clear reason.

Making the file smaller

Each entry is an old error that bsr still hides. A smaller file means fewer such entries.

You can get fewer entries by:

Fixing the code, then creating the baseline again
Creating the baseline again after a large cleanup

Fixing code by itself does not change the baseline file. Old entries stay until you create the file again. That is usually fine — bsr check only looks at current lint output. But a very large baseline is harder to review in PRs.

Create the baseline again with `bsr init`

bsr init replaces the whole baseline with the errors the linter reports now:

<lint-command> | bsr init

Do this when:

You fixed many errors and want those entries removed from the file
You want a fresh snapshot after a large cleanup

Do not do this just to hide new errors. If the linter reports errors that were never in the baseline, init will add them as allowed.

Fix errors without rewriting the file every time

You do not need to run init after every fix:

Fix the error (or change the line so its content hash no longer matches)
If the error is fixed, it disappears from lint output
If you only changed the line and the error remains, bsr check may treat it as new
Later, run init again if you want the committed file to stay clean

Boy Scout Policy can force cleanups on changed files or lines without editing the baseline on every PR.

Baseline format — fields in the JSON file
Boy Scout Policy — clean up when you edit code
CI / CD — fail PRs when there are new errors