rubycritic

name	rubycritic
description	Integrate RubyCritic to analyze Ruby code quality and maintain high standards throughout development. Use when working on Ruby projects to check code smells, complexity, and duplication. Triggers include creating/editing Ruby files, refactoring code, reviewing code quality, or when user requests code analysis or quality checks.

Maintain high code quality standards in Ruby projects by integrating RubyCritic analysis into the development workflow. Automatically detect code smells, complexity issues, and duplication, providing actionable guidance for improvements. Run quality check on Ruby files:

scripts/check_quality.sh [path/to/ruby/files]

If no path is provided, analyzes the current directory. The script automatically installs RubyCritic if missing.

Immediate feedback:

Overall score (0-100)
File ratings (A-F)
Specific code smells detected

**Proactive analysis**: Run RubyCritic automatically after significant code changes:

After creating new Ruby files or classes
After implementing complex methods (>10 lines)
After refactoring existing code
Before marking tasks as complete
Before committing code

Integration pattern:

Make code changes
Run scripts/check_quality.sh [changed_files]
Review output for issues
Address critical smells (if any)
Re-run to verify improvements
Proceed with next task

When to skip: Simple variable renames, comment changes, or minor formatting adjustments don't require quality checks.

**Overall Score**:

95+ (excellent) - Maintain this standard
90-94 (good) - Minor improvements possible
80-89 (acceptable) - Consider refactoring
Below 80 - Prioritize improvements

File Ratings:

A/B - Acceptable quality
C - Needs attention
D/F - Requires refactoring

Issue Types:

Code Smells (Reek) - Design and readability issues
Complexity (Flog) - Overly complex methods
Duplication (Flay) - Repeated code patterns

**Priority order**:

Critical smells - Long parameter lists, high complexity, feature envy
Duplication - Extract shared methods or modules
Minor smells - Unused parameters, duplicate method calls
Style issues - Naming, organization

Incremental fixing:

Fix one issue at a time
Run analysis after each fix
Verify score improves
Explain significant improvements to user

When scores drop:

Identify which file/method caused the drop
Review recent changes in that area
Fix immediately before continuing
Don't accumulate technical debt

**Common errors and solutions**:

"RubyCritic not found": Script auto-installs, but if it fails:

Check Ruby is installed: ruby --version
Manually install: gem install rubycritic
Or add to Gemfile: gem 'rubycritic', require: false

"No files to analyze": Verify path contains .rb files

Check path is correct
Use explicit path: scripts/check_quality.sh app/models

"Bundler error": Gemfile.lock conflict

Run bundle install first
Or use system gem: gem install rubycritic && rubycritic [path]

Analysis hangs: Large codebase

Analyze specific directories instead of entire project
Use --no-browser flag to skip HTML generation
Consider .rubycritic.yml to exclude paths

For additional error scenarios, see references/error-handling.md

**Pre-commit quality checks**: Automatically run RubyCritic before commits:

# .git/hooks/pre-commit
#!/bin/bash
# Get staged Ruby files
RUBY_FILES=$(git diff --cached --name-only --diff-filter=ACM | grep '\.rb$')

if [ -n "$RUBY_FILES" ]; then
  echo "Running RubyCritic on staged files..."
  scripts/check_quality.sh $RUBY_FILES

  if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "Quality check failed. Fix issues or use --no-verify to skip."
    exit 1
  fi
fi

CI integration: Add to GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or other CI systems:

# .github/workflows/quality.yml
- name: Run RubyCritic
  run: |
    gem install rubycritic
    rubycritic --format json --minimum-score 90

For complete git hooks setup and CI examples, see references/git-hooks.md

**Basic configuration** (`.rubycritic.yml`):

minimum_score: 95
formats:
  - console
paths:
  - 'app/'
  - 'lib/'
no_browser: true

Common options:

minimum_score: Fail if score below this threshold
formats: Output formats (console, html, json)
paths: Directories to analyze
no_browser: Don't auto-open HTML report

For advanced configuration and custom thresholds, see references/configuration.md

**Quick quality check during development**:

# Check recently modified files
scripts/check_quality.sh $(git diff --name-only | grep '\.rb$')

Generate detailed HTML report:

bundle exec rubycritic --format html app/
# Opens browser with detailed analysis

Compare with main branch (CI mode):

rubycritic --mode-ci --branch main app/
# Shows only changes from main branch

Check specific file types:

scripts/check_quality.sh app/models/*.rb
scripts/check_quality.sh app/services/**/*.rb

For detailed examples of common code smells and how to fix them, see [references/code_smells.md](references/code_smells.md)

Quick reference:

Control Parameter - Replace boolean params with separate methods
Feature Envy - Move method to the class it uses most
Long Parameter List - Use parameter objects or hashes
High Complexity - Extract methods, use early returns
Duplication - Extract to shared methods or modules

**Automatic installation**: The `check_quality.sh` script handles installation automatically:

Detects if RubyCritic is installed
Uses bundler if Gemfile present
Falls back to system gem installation
Adds to Gemfile development group if needed

Manual installation:

With Bundler:

# Gemfile
group :development do
  gem 'rubycritic', require: false
end

System-wide:

gem install rubycritic

RubyCritic is successfully integrated when:

Quality checks run automatically after significant code changes
Overall score maintained at 90+ (or project-defined threshold)
Critical code smells addressed immediately
Quality improvements explained to user when significant
No quality regressions introduced by changes
Files maintain A or B ratings

**Detailed references**:

references/code_smells.md - Common smells and fixes with examples
references/configuration.md - Advanced RubyCritic configuration
references/git-hooks.md - Pre-commit hooks and CI integration
references/error-handling.md - Troubleshooting common errors

Install Skill

SKILL.md