Baseline — recording known issues

Baseline lets you “accept” existing issues so that only new issues introduced later are reported. Useful when introducing quality-checker into a project that already has many issues you do not want to fix right away.

Usage

1. Generate a baseline from current results

Run the check and export JSON, then create a baseline from all existing issues:

php artisan quality:check --format=json --output=reports/quality-checker
php artisan quality:check --baseline-generate

The --baseline-generate command reads the check results and writes the baseline file (by default baseline.json in the project root).

2. Update the baseline

When you fix some issues and want to “freeze” the new state as the baseline:

php artisan quality:check --baseline-update

The --baseline-update command overwrites the baseline with all current issues (every severity level). Only use it when you are sure the current state is the desired one.

3. Specify a custom baseline file

php artisan quality:check --baseline-file=reports/baseline.json

Baseline file

The file is plain JSON containing a list of signatures (not human-readable):

{
  "generated_at": "2026-09-20T10:00:00+07:00",
  "baseline": [
    "9f2c1d8a3b7e4f5a..."
  ]
}

Each signature is md5(rule|file|line|message). When a baseline is loaded, issues with matching signatures are skipped in the report (but still marked baselined if display is needed).

Gitignore

Depending on your team, you can choose:

Do not commit the baseline (each member creates their own):
```
baseline.json
```
Commit a shared baseline (the team shares it, synced via git): remove the line above.

By default the package recommends committing it so the whole team shares the same quality gate, unless you want each person to have their own baseline.

Note: The --baseline-generate, --baseline-update, --baseline-file flags are appended to the command during integration. If the command does not support them yet, check whether the installed package version already includes baseline functionality.