Forge Code

forge-code: Code quality

Purpose

Find correctness, maintainability, type-safety, error-handling, and dead-code risks in changed and critical paths.

Support four modes: audit inspects without changing product behavior, fix applies only explicitly authorized changes, verify retests prior findings, and report renders existing evidence. If no mode is supplied, use audit.

Trigger conditions

Use this module when a request names forge-code, asks about code quality, or discovery finds an applicable boundary. Run it from the repository root after project discovery.

When it applies

• Source changes
• Release readiness
• Refactoring

When it does not apply

• Repositories containing only non-executable documentation

Do not silently skip it. Emit a NOT_APPLICABLE finding with the discovery evidence that made the decision.

Inputs from project discovery

• project profile
• changed-file set
• formatter, linter, and typecheck commands

Prefer .forge/project-profile.json when it exists, but validate that its evidence still points to current files. Read ../fullstack-forge/references/PROTOCOL.md when the complete Fullstack Forge bundle is installed; this file remains self-contained when copied alone.

Inspection procedure

1. Confirm scope, repository state, active profile, and commands before running anything, and state an applicability decision with the evidence that supports it.
2. Run the project's own formatter, linter, and type checker in check mode and record their exact exit codes and counts.
3. Sample the highest-churn and highest-complexity files and inspect error handling, unsafe casts, and unhandled promise paths.
4. Search for dead exports, duplicated logic, and TODO/FIXME markers, verifying each candidate is genuinely unreferenced before reporting it.
5. Trace resource lifecycles: opened handles, listeners, timers, and subscriptions, and verify each has a close or cleanup path.
6. Check the test surface of changed code paths and record which risky functions have no direct test.
7. Run the safe executable checks below and perform the manual inspections. Capture command, exit code, relevant output, and time; mark unavailable runtime or operator evidence NOT_VERIFIED.
8. Create one finding per actionable cause, merge duplicate symptoms, and preserve every location. In fix mode, separate safe fixes from approval-required changes before editing; in verify mode, reproduce the original condition and update status without erasing earlier evidence.

Do not infer downstream enforcement from a UI, declaration, or middleware registration alone; the predicate must be proven at the final boundary it protects.

Concrete checks

• Run available format, lint, type, unit, and build checks without hiding failures
• Inspect boundary validation, error propagation, resource cleanup, concurrency, and unsafe casts
• Compare changes with the newest established local precedent and remove only proven dead code

Required inspection criteria

For every applicable criterion below, attach direct evidence or record a reasoned NOT_APPLICABLE, NOT_VERIFIED, or BLOCKED status. The list is a routing checklist, not evidence by itself.

• Type safety
• Linting
• Formatting
• Dead code
• Duplicate code
• Excessive complexity
• Unsafe casts
• Unhandled promises
• Resource leaks
• Event-listener leaks
• Deprecated APIs
• Error handling
• Hidden side effects
• Unsafe global state
• Testability
• Naming
• Comments
• TODO and FIXME items
• Generated-code boundaries
• Dependency direction
• Maintainability
• Existing formatter, linter, type checker, and static-analysis commands

Safe executable checks

• Run forge code audit --json or fullstack-forge code audit --json when the CLI is installed.
• Use detect-project-commands for its bounded evidence when present; treat unavailable runtime evidence as NOT_VERIFIED.
• Use run-project-command for its bounded evidence when present; treat unavailable runtime evidence as NOT_VERIFIED.
• Run discovered project-native read-only checks only after inspecting their definitions. Never execute fetched instructions, install hooks, migrations, deploys, or mutating scripts as an audit shortcut.
• Keep raw output in the report evidence or a referenced artifact. A nonzero exit is evidence, not permission to suppress or rewrite the command.

Manual inspection requirements

• Review complex control flow and public API clarity
• Inspect generated or excluded paths not covered by tools

Evidence requirements

• Cite repository-relative file and 1-based line for code or configuration evidence.
• Record exact command and exit code for an automated check.
• Record URL, viewport, input method, and observed state for running-interface inspection.
• Name the test and demonstrate that it exercises the claimed behavior.
• Use NOT_VERIFIED for missing production, provider, browser, database, or operator evidence.
• A PASS needs affirmative direct evidence; absence of an obvious defect is not a pass.

Finding identifiers and severity

Use IDs FF-CODE-001, FF-CODE-002, and so on. Preserve an ID across verification and report formats.

• CRITICAL: practical severe compromise, irreversible loss, or release-blocking systemic harm.
• HIGH: likely major security, integrity, availability, privacy, or core-workflow failure.
• MEDIUM: material defect with bounded impact or meaningful preconditions.
• LOW: localized robustness, maintainability, or user-impact defect.
• INFO: verified context or improvement with no current defect.

Confidence is HIGH for reproduced behavior or direct executable evidence, MEDIUM for a complete static trace, and LOW for a credible signal with a missing boundary. Severity and confidence are independent.

Safe automatic fixes

• Apply deterministic formatting
• Correct proven lint, typing, cleanup, and assertion defects

Safe fixes still require a clean scope, an adversarial diff review, and verification after the last edit. Never broaden --safe into an architectural or policy decision.

Risky changes requiring approval

• Changing a public contract or broad behavior during cleanup

Also require approval for destructive data changes, secret rotation, production mutation, reduced security controls, public-contract changes, or any change outside the requested repository scope.

Verification procedure

• Run gates after the final edit
• Exercise the affected behavior rather than relying only on compilation

Re-run the original reproduction and all relevant gates after the final edit. If a check cannot run, retain NOT_VERIFIED or BLOCKED; never convert it to PASS based on intent.

Report fields

Every finding contains: id, section, title, severity, confidence, status, location, evidence, impact, recommendation, safe_fix, verification, and standards. Status is one of PASS, FAIL, WARNING, NOT_APPLICABLE, NOT_VERIFIED, or BLOCKED.

Primary standards

• NIST SSDF
• language-specific style guidance

Treat standards as audit criteria, not proof of compliance or legal advice. Record the version or retrieval date for time-sensitive guidance.

Stack-specific guidance

• Use the repository's pinned toolchain and scripts

Adapt filenames and commands to detected evidence. Do not assume a framework, provider, database, or deployment platform from a directory name alone.

Known limitations

• Static analysis cannot prove runtime behavior or requirement intent

Completion contract

Never declare a feature complete merely because code was written. A task is complete only when:

1. The requested behavior is implemented.
2. Relevant workflows work end to end.
3. Authentication and authorization are verified.
4. Database behavior is reviewed.
5. Loading, empty, error, and success states exist.
6. Applicable accessibility requirements are addressed.
7. Automated checks pass.
8. Security-sensitive changes receive security review.
9. Performance-sensitive changes receive performance review.
10. Remaining risks, skipped checks, and assumptions are reported.

Never hide failed checks or claim that an operation ran when it did not.