tsa-constraints

name	tsa-constraints
description	| Use when this capability is needed.

tsa-constraints — Inhibitory edges as code

Bio-analogy: inhibitory synapses — declared "X must NOT call Y" rules that fire UNSAFE verdicts when violated. Rules live in architectural-constraints.yml at repo root, are evaluated against the persisted call graph, and persist violations in SQLite for fast re-reads.

When to use

Goal	Action
List current rules	Read architectural-constraints.yml
Check repo against rules	edit action=constraints (no args)
Pre-edit gate (includes rule check)	edit action=safe (auto)
Add a new rule	Edit YAML + re-run edit action=constraints
Filter violations by severity	edit action=constraints severity_min="error"
Filter by path	edit action=constraints path_filter="mcp/**"

Procedure

One-shot audit

edit action=constraints

Returns:

success: true
verdict: SAFE | CAUTION | UNSAFE
violations: [
  {rule_id, caller_file, caller_line, callee_name, callee_file, severity, reason}
]
rule_count: <int>
evaluated_edge_count: <int>

Verdict cascade:

• UNSAFE → any error-severity violation
• CAUTION → any warn-severity violation
• SAFE → none

Adding a new rule

1. Open architectural-constraints.yml at repo root
2. Append:

   - id: <slug, kebab-case>
     severity: error | warn | info
     rule: forbid
     from: "path/glob/**"
     to:   "path/glob/**"
     reason: "<why this is forbidden>"
     exceptions: ["specific/file.py"]   # optional
   

3. Run edit action=constraints to see if existing code violates the new rule
4. Either: fix the violations OR add them to exceptions

Reading violations

For each violation row:

• rule_id — which rule fired (look it up in the YAML for reason)
• caller_file:caller_line — the offending call site
• callee_file — what it's calling (may be empty if callee unresolved)
• severity — error = block, warn = surface only, info = noise

DSL semantics

• rule: forbid — currently the only supported rule type (MVP)
• from / to — fnmatch-style globs (** for recursive)
• exceptions — caller-side globs that bypass the rule
• Unknown top-level keys → fatal parse error
• Unknown per-rule keys → warn + skip (forward-compat)

Default rules in THIS repo

Inspect:

cat architectural-constraints.yml

Current 3 rules (as of last commit):

1. mcp-must-not-depend-on-cli — MCP tools are runtime adapters; CLI imports MCP, never reverse
2. language-plugins-isolated — language plugins can't know about MCP
3. core-must-not-import-mcp — core analysis primitives precede MCP layer

CLI equivalents

uv run tree-sitter-analyzer --check-constraints --output-format toon
uv run tree-sitter-analyzer --check-constraints --severity-min error
uv run tree-sitter-analyzer --check-constraints --constraint-path-filter "mcp/**"
uv run tree-sitter-analyzer --check-constraints --constraint-file path/to/alt-rules.yml

Exit codes mirror --change-impact:

• 0 → SAFE
• 2 → CAUTION (warn-only)
• 1 → UNSAFE (error severity)

CI gating example:

uv run tree-sitter-analyzer --check-constraints || exit 1   # block PR on UNSAFE

Anti-patterns

• Don't write a rule per file — use globs (tree_sitter_analyzer/mcp/**)
• Don't set severity=info on rules you actually want enforced (info = visible only)
• Don't forget reason: — agents reading violations need it to suggest fixes
• Don't disable via --no-constraints in CI — that defeats the gate's purpose

Decision surface

verdict: SAFE | CAUTION | UNSAFE
violations: [...]   # empty when SAFE
rule_count: <int>
evaluated_edge_count: <int>

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Source: aimasteracc/tree-sitter-analyzer — distributed by TomeVault.