kern review

Deep static analysis that understands your code at the concept level. 68 AST-based rules + 5 concept rules. TypeScript and Python.

Quick start

# Review a directory
kern review src/ --recursive

# JSON output for CI
kern review src/ --json

# SARIF for GitHub Security tab
kern review src/ --sarif > results.sarif

# With LLM-assisted analysis
kern review src/ --llm

# Enforce minimum coverage
kern review src/ --enforce --min-coverage=80

Rule layers

Rules are organized in layers. Base + security + dead-logic are always active. Framework rules activate by target.

Concept rules

Beyond syntax linting, kern review understands universal code concepts: entrypoints, effects, guards, state mutations, and boundaries.

• unguarded-effect — Side effect (fetch, db, fs) without try/catch or error handling
• boundary-mutation — State mutated across module boundary
• ignored-error — Error caught but not handled (empty catch)
• illegal-dependency — Cross-module dependency without proper import
• unrecovered-effect — Effect can fail without recovery path

Output formats

• --json — Machine-readable JSON findings
• --sarif — SARIF format for GitHub Security tab
• --summary — Human-readable summary
• --llm — LLM-exportable format (5x smaller IR)

Configuration

// kern.config.ts
export default {
  review: {
    showConfidence: true,    // Show confidence scores
    minConfidence: 0,        // 0-1, filter low-confidence findings
    maxComplexity: 15,       // Cognitive complexity threshold
  }
}

Deep dive