CLI reference

Synopsis

strider [--config PATH|--no-config] [--color auto|always|never] COMMAND [OPTIONS] [FILE|DIR]...

Command	Description
strider help	Print top-level usage. -h and --help are aliases.
strider version	Print the current version string. -v and --version are aliases.
strider check	Run formatting, maintainability, and correctness checks; optionally apply automatic fixes.
strider fmt	Format Go source in place. format is an alias.

Calling Strider without a command is an error. Source commands recursively use the current directory when no path is provided.

Global options

Global options must precede the command.

Long options always use two dashes. Every option also has a one-character alias with one dash; aliases are scoped to their command.

Flag	Description
-c, --config PATH	Use this strider.toml instead of automatic discovery.
--config=PATH	Equivalent inline form.
-n, --no-config	Disable discovery and use built-in defaults.
-C, --color auto|always|never	Control ANSI color. Default: configured value or auto.
-C, --colors auto|always|never	Alias for --color.

--config and --no-config are mutually exclusive. Normally Strider searches from the current directory through its parents and uses the nearest strider.toml.

auto emits color only when the destination stream is a terminal. A non-empty NO_COLOR disables color and a non-empty FORCE_COLOR forces it; FORCE_COLOR=0 explicitly disables it. FORCE_COLOR has highest precedence. JSON and formatted source are never decorated with ANSI escapes.

strider check

strider check [OPTIONS] [FILE|DIR]...

check is read-only unless --fix or --fix-unsafe is requested. All 207 checks are eligible; the default warning floor runs the 191 warning and error checks. --minimum-severity note also includes notes, and --minimum-severity none includes checks configured as none.

Selection and reporting

Flag	Description
-f, --format text|json|html	Select text, JSON, or a self-contained HTML report. Default: text.
-o, --only CODE	Run exactly these check codes. Repeatable, comma-separated, and case-insensitive.
-s, --minimum-severity none|note|warning|error	Run only checks at or above this effective severity; overrides configuration.
-q, --summary-only	Print only per-check counts and the final aggregate issue summary. Text reports only.
-l, --list-checks	List the effective selected registry and severity, then exit.
-e, --explain CODE	Explain one selected check and show its effective severity, then exit.
-w, --watch	Keep a text-mode incremental session open and rerun changed generations.
-x, --fix	Apply explicitly safe automatic fixes, then rerun the checks once.
-u, --fix-unsafe	Apply all automatic fixes, including potentially unsafe and unsafe fixes, then rerun once.

An unknown code supplied by configuration, --only, or --explain is an exit-code 2 error. Explicit CLI selection preserves configured severity, the minimum threshold, and path exclusions. Severity overrides are resolved before the threshold, and --only does not bypass it.

Use --only format to check formatting without writing. Add --fix to apply the validated result, use strider fmt for the focused write workflow, or use strider fmt --diff to inspect it.

Watch mode prints a numbered full report for the initial generation and each detected source or package-boundary change. It requires text output and cannot be combined with fix mode, baseline generation, or pruning.

Automatic fixes

--fix and --fix-unsafe are mutually exclusive. The safe mode considers only fixes explicitly marked both automatic and safe. Unsafe mode also considers automatic fixes marked potentially unsafe or unsafe; it does not exclude safe fixes. The initial automatic set covers format, double-negation, redundant-switch-break, and single-argument-append.

Only diagnostics that survive check selection, effective-severity filtering, path exclusions, source suppression, and baseline matching are considered. Edits are composed in memory per file, nonidentical overlaps are skipped, and affected source is formatted before validation unless formatter exclusions or a format-ignore directive apply. Every result must parse. A batch containing safe changes must also type-check through an overlay of the analyzed source.

The write is guarded by the analyzed content. Every source is compared after staging and before commit, and each target is checked again immediately before replacement. A stale comparison exits 2 and stops the remaining writes. After a successful application, the selected checks run once more; the final report and exit code describe the remaining findings.

Outputs are all staged before replacement and each replacement is atomic, but the batch is not a cross-file transaction: a later rename failure or concurrent edit detected after commit starts can leave an earlier file updated. Permission bits are preserved. Ownership, ACLs, and extended attributes are filesystem-dependent.

Safe fixes are designed to preserve Go program semantics. A successful parse and type-check is not a proof of identical behavior across all toolchains, build tags, platforms, and environments.

Baselines

Flag	Description
-b, --baseline PATH	Apply or update this baseline; overrides [checks].baseline.
-g, --generate-baseline	Replace the selected baseline with all current non-format findings and exit 0.
-r, --remove-outdated-baseline-entries	Remove baseline entries that no longer match; never add new findings.

Generation and pruning require either --baseline PATH or [checks].baseline. They are mutually exclusive. Code format is never stored in a baseline. Fix mode can use an ordinary baseline, but cannot be combined with generation or pruning.

strider fmt

strider fmt [--check|--diff|--write|--stdin] [FILE|DIR]...

Flag	Description
-c, --check	Report files that would change without writing.
-d, --diff	Print full unified diffs without writing.
-w, --write	Write files in place. Writing is already the default filesystem mode.
-s, --stdin	Read one source file from standard input and write it to standard output.
-f, --stdin-filename PATH	Set the logical standard-input filename; default <stdin>.

--stdin-filename requires --stdin, and standard-input mode cannot be combined with paths or filesystem mode flags. Formatter width, indentation, line endings, and exclusions come from [formatter] in strider.toml.

Paths and discovery

Paths may name Go files, directories, or recursive ./... notation. With no path, Strider uses . recursively. Discovery includes test files and is deterministic.

The .git, .hg, .svn, and vendor directories are skipped. Directory walks skip symlink entries, while a directly named source symlink is followed. Fix mode preserves that link and updates its captured target while guarding against retargeting. Files carrying the standard // Code generated ... DO NOT EDIT. marker are skipped. Configuration can add tool-wide and per-check exclusions.

Streams

• Formatted source, diffs, check lists, explanations, and visible diagnostics go to standard output.
• Usage errors, parsing or package-loading failures, unsupported syntax, baseline failures, stale-baseline warnings, and skipped-fix warnings go to standard error.
• Successful baseline generation writes the file without printing diagnostics.

Text diagnostics use a rich, source-annotated layout with a severity-colored heading and source span, file location, one surrounding line on either side, notes or suggested remedies, and an aggregate severity summary. Redirected output remains plain under the default auto mode.

Severity-bearing rule codes use the same color as their severity: red for errors, yellow for warnings, and blue for notes.

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	Clean after any requested fixes, successfully formatted, or baseline generation completed.
1	One or more visible check findings remain, including formatting drift.
2	Invalid command/options, configuration or baseline error, fix validation or stale-source failure, parse or package-load failure, unsupported syntax, or I/O failure.

Any visible diagnostic currently causes exit 1, regardless of whether its configured severity is note, warning, or error.