Severity Levels

Rulebound uses two dimensions to classify rules: severity (how serious a violation is) and modality (how mandatory the rule is). Together they determine validation outcomes and enforcement behavior.

Severity

Level	Use For	Display
`error`	Critical issues that must be fixed	Red badge in reports
`warning`	Issues that should be addressed	Yellow badge in reports
`info`	Informational guidelines	Blue badge in reports

Set severity in rule front matter:

severity: error

Modality

Modality follows RFC 2119 language and controls validation status:

Level	Keyword	Meaning	On Violation
`must`	MUST	Absolute requirement	Status: `FAILED`
`should`	SHOULD	Recommended but not absolute	Status: `PASSED_WITH_WARNINGS`
`may`	MAY	Optional guidance	Reported but never blocks

Set modality in rule front matter:

modality: must

Validation Statuses

Each rule in a validation report gets one of three statuses:

Status	Meaning
`PASS`	Rule is satisfied
`VIOLATED`	Rule is not satisfied
`NOT_COVERED`	Rule could not be evaluated (insufficient context)

How They Interact

The overall validation status is determined by combining individual rule results:

Condition	Report Status
Any `must` rule is VIOLATED	`FAILED`
Any rule is VIOLATED or NOT_COVERED (but no `must` violations)	`PASSED_WITH_WARNINGS`
All rules PASS	`PASSED`

Enforcement Modes

Enforcement mode adds another layer on top of validation status:

Mode	Blocks On
`advisory`	Never blocks (reports only)
`moderate`	MUST violations or score below threshold
`strict`	Any MUST or SHOULD violation, or score below threshold

Score Calculation

The validation score is calculated as a weighted average:

Status	Weight
PASS	1.0
NOT_COVERED	0.5
VIOLATED	0.0

Score = (PASS * 1.0 + NOT_COVERED * 0.5 + VIOLATED * 0.0) / total_rules * 100

The score threshold (default: 70) is used in moderate and strict modes to block low-quality changes.

Choosing Severity and Modality

Scenario	Severity	Modality
Security vulnerability (SQL injection, XSS)	`error`	`must`
Missing error handling	`warning`	`should`
Naming convention	`warning`	`should`
Performance optimization tip	`info`	`may`
Experimental practice	`info`	`may`