Configuration

Everything that decides anything lives in .yieldpoint.json, committed, so a team tunes it in review rather than forking the tool.

A minimal file

{
  "project": "billing-service",
  "test_contract": {
    "protected_patterns": ["tests/**"],
    "assertion_monotonicity": "repair"
  },
  "structure": { "severity": "advisory", "max_file_lines": 300 },
  "metrics": { "enabled": true }
}

Sections

Section	Decides
`test_contract`	Which paths are protected, and how hard each contract rule bites.
`structure`	Size and shape limits. Reported, but do not fail a run unless `gates` is true.
`refactor`	Dangling references and removed exports.
`boundaries`	Layer zones, and what may import what.
`ci`	Whether removing or disabling a CI step is reported.
`routing`	How churn, complexity and importance escalate a verdict.
`loop_breaker`	When an agent is going round without making progress.
`generated`	How generated files are detected, and what a hand-edit means.
`linters`	Optional external linters. Off by default, curated argv only.
`metrics`	Local accounting, and your token price for the cost estimate.
`voice`	What gets spoken aloud, for voice-driven sessions.
`scan`	What a repository audit ignores.

An unknown section or key is reported as a warning, never ignored silently — believing you configured something while a default quietly applies is worse than a wrong value.

What stops a commit

A finding that says something was taken away fails the run. A finding that describes the shape of the code does not — it is printed, counted, and visible in scan, but it does not stand between you and a commit.

$ yieldpoint review
REPAIR  1 finding(s)

  22 files:0  [change_too_large]
    This change adds 1472 lines across 22 files, over the limit of 1200.

→ Reported, not blocking. These describe shape, not a weakening.
  Set structure.gates true in .yieldpoint.json to make them binding.

The reasoning is about what happens next rather than about severity: a gate that fires on ordinary days gets passed --no-verify out of habit, and the habit does not distinguish a long function from a deleted assertion.

Severities

Every rule resolves to one of these, and the CLI's exit code follows the worst one. There is no "advisory" severity: a finding either has a status that fails the run or the rule is off. The editor hook is separately installable in an advisory mode that reports without blocking, which is a property of that surface, not of a rule.

Severity	Means
`off`	Not evaluated at all.
`repair`	The agent can fix this itself; hand it back the prescription.
`escalate`	A person needs to look. Retrying will not help.
`block`	Do not apply, do not retry. Reserved for rules with a measured false-positive rate.