Standards

Standards are automated quality checks that verify whether a Record meets your organization’s requirements. They answer: “Does this software follow our rules?”

Unlike Reviews (qualitative assessments by humans), Standards are objective, automated checks that run during CI/CD. They enforce the requirements defined in your Baselines.

Note

Standards can only be updated via automation; they cannot be updated in the Phaset user interface.

Why Standards Matter

They enforce consistency. Every team follows the same rules. No more “well, we didn’t know we needed a README.” Standards checks run during CI/CD, catching problems before code reaches production. Missing tests? Failed Standards check. No CHANGELOG? Build fails. Unlike manual reviews, Standards checks don’t depend on who’s reviewing or how tired they are. The same check runs the same way, every time. Whether you have 10 repositories or 1,000, Standards checks run automatically. Zero manual effort once configured.

How Standards Work

Note

Standards checks are powered by StandardLint, an open-source tool for enforcing repository standards.

The workflow:

1. You define a Baseline with checks like “must have README,” “must have tests”
2. StandardLint runs these checks against your repository during CI/CD
3. Results are sent to Phaset and displayed on the Record
4. The Standards score contributes to the overall Health Score

Example checks configuration:

{
  "checks": [
    {
      "name": "checkForPresenceContributing",
      "severity": "warn"
    },
    {
      "name": "checkForPresenceLicense",
      "severity": "error"
    }
  ]
}

Example results:

{
  "passes": 0,
  "warnings": 1,
  "failures": 1,
  "results": [
    {
      "name": "Contribution information",
      "status": "warn",
      "message": "Check for CONTRIBUTING file",
      "path": "CONTRIBUTING.md"
    },
    {
      "name": "License",
      "status": "fail",
      "message": "Check for LICENSE file",
      "path": "LICENSE.md"
    }
  ]
}

These results appear on the Record in Phaset, showing exactly what passed, what warned, and what failed.

Standards vs Reviews vs Health Scores

Let’s look at how the different quality concepts relate.

• Baselines define what checks to run and how strict they should be (“the rules”)
• Standards are the results of running those checks automatically (“enforcement”)
• Reviews are qualitative assessments that humans complete (“judgment”)
• Health Scores combine Standards, Record completeness, and Reviews into one metric (“indicator”)

Setting Up Standards

1. Define a Baseline with checks appropriate for your services
2. Integrate StandardLint into your CI/CD pipeline (see Integration Guide)
3. Configure the Phaset integration to send results to your organization
4. Run your pipeline; Standards checks run automatically
5. View results on each Record in Phaset

Once configured, Standards update automatically with every build. No manual work required.

Phaset GitHub Action

Steps 2 and 3 are automatically performed when using the Phaset GitHub Action.

Integration API

You can also update Standards manually via the Integration API for custom workflows or one-off updates.

What Checks Are Available

Phaset intends to provide all—or the vast majority—of checks provided by StandardLint.

Getting Started

1. Create a Baseline with basic checks
2. Set up CI/CD integration following the Integration Guide
3. Run Standards checks on a pilot repository
4. Review results and adjust your Baseline
5. Expand to more repositories once the process works smoothly

Start with lenient checks (warnings, not errors) and tighten over time. Standards work best when they enforce achievable quality bars, not unattainable perfection.