anchors check

Run the quality gates (the pipeline).

Confronts the nodes against the quality gates declared in anchors.yaml
and reports the verdict profile (QUALITY §5-§6).

By default it is INCREMENTAL: it runs over the impact path of a changed file
(--changed <file>). With --all, it sweeps every node (expensive; the full picture).

Each gate that fails generates an issue; a blocking gate that fails bars
promotion. Informative gates enter the profile but do not bar (maturation, §7).

--deterministic SKIPS the AI judgment gates (measures: judgment) and runs only
the computable ones. It is the PRE-COMMIT mode: a judge gate cannot bar a commit
(there is no waiting for the AI) nor should it queue judgment on every commit (repeated
garbage). Without that mode, judge becomes invisible (it neither bars nor records).

Usage

anchors check [flags]

Flags

Flag	Default	What it does
--all		scan every node (the full picture; expensive)
--category		enforces only the gates of this nature (types|style|traceability…)
--changed		changed file(s) — repeatable or comma-separated; the gates run ONCE over the union of the impact paths
--commit-msg		path to the commit message file, from which to read the [skip-<gate>@<CODE>: reason] markers
--deterministic		runs only the computable gates (skips the AI-judgment ones) — the pre-commit mode
--fix		self-healer: applies the automatic repairs (e.g. fixes updated_at) before confronting
--index		the gates read the files as the git index has them — what the commit records (the pre-commit mode)
--map		path to the map
--no-record		report only: neither stamps the map nor opens issues
--only-issues		omits from the table the gates that passed everything and left no pending item (the total remains in the footer)
--phase		enforces only the gates of this phase (pre-commit|pre-push|ci|manual)
--record-issues		github mode: open/close board issues from a local run too (by default only CI does); manual mode: write the issues to issues/ (by default none is written)
--root	.	project root
--show-drift		lists ALL the pending items (⚠) with the address of each one; without the flag, only the table counter
--skip-rule		waives rules in this run: id=reason[,id=reason]. The reason is mandatory
--skip-slow		skip gates declared cost: slow
--timing		measures how long each gate took, and names the slowest targets — to find what makes a scan expensive

Confronting the project — family

Commands of the same family — what tells each apart:

Command	What it does
anchors check	Run the quality gates (the pipeline)
anchors verify	Run EVERYTHING the phase requires: Anchors gates + external tools
anchors coverage	Show coverage by scenario, by line, of the DIFF and the delta
anchors stale	List stale edges — what changed and has not been reconfronted
anchors impact	Impact analysis: what a change to this file reaches
anchors failures	The observed failures that the spec has not yet explained

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The anchors check command is the primary verification engine of the Anchors framework. It evaluates the project’s quality gates against modified, staged, or entire repository files.

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1. Syntax & Common Options

# Check modified files in working directory
anchors check

# Check staged files (used by git pre-commit hook)
anchors check --staged

# Check all governed files across the entire project
anchors check --all

# Check only a specific gate
anchors check --gate=unit-complete

# Run in strict mode (fails on warnings)
anchors check --strict

Exit Codes:

• 0: All gates passed cleanly (OK).
• 1: One or more blocking gates returned FAIL.
• 2: Configuration or file parsing error.

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2. Difference between check and verify

• anchors check: Focuses on internal Anchors gates (unit completeness, identity code integrity, boundary violations, doc parity).
• anchors verify: The full-phase orchestrator. It runs anchors check, executes project test suites (anchors test), runs linter tools, and performs mutation checks before approving a release milestone.

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3. CI/CD Usage Example

# In GitHub Actions or GitLab CI
- name: Evaluate Anchors Pipeline
  run: anchors check --all