vibgrate baseline — Create a Drift Baseline

Usage

vibgrate baseline [path]

What It Does

vibgrate baseline runs a full scan and saves the result to .vibgrate/baseline.json. This snapshot becomes your reference point for measuring whether drift is improving or worsening over time.

Why Baselines Matter

Without a baseline, every scan is a standalone snapshot — you know your score, but you cannot tell whether things are getting better or worse. With a baseline:

• CI can detect regression — if drift worsens beyond a threshold, the pipeline fails
• Teams can track improvement — each sprint's score can be compared to the starting point
• Fitness functions become possible — --drift-budget and --drift-worsening require a baseline to work

Recommended Workflow

Step 1: Create baseline on main branch

vibgrate baseline .

This writes .vibgrate/baseline.json. Commit it to version control.

Step 2: Use baseline in CI

vibgrate scan . \
  --baseline .vibgrate/baseline.json \
  --drift-budget 40 \
  --drift-worsening 5 \
  --fail-on error

Step 3: Refresh after planned upgrades

When your team completes a round of dependency upgrades, refresh the baseline:

vibgrate baseline .
git add .vibgrate/baseline.json
git commit -m 'chore: refresh drift baseline after Q1 upgrades'

Baseline vs Scan Artifact

Best Practices

• Always create your first baseline on the default branch before enabling CI gates
• Refresh the baseline periodically (e.g. quarterly, or after each upgrade sprint)
• Never delete the baseline without replacing it — CI gates that reference a missing baseline will behave unpredictably
• Store the baseline in version control so all branches can compare against the same reference