codeclimate-config

Code Climate Quality has rebranded as Qlty (the docs.codeclimate.com URL now 301-redirects to docs.qlty.sh per the Qlty docs (opens in new window)). This skill configures both:

1. Legacy .codeclimate.yml - still consumed by Code Climate Velocity SaaS + GitHub Code Climate App for teams that haven't migrated.
2. New .qlty/qlty.toml - Qlty platform format with [[plugin]] / [[source]] sections.

When to use

• Teams adopting an "issues-on-PR" automated review tool.
• Adding duplication-mass / cyclomatic-complexity guards to CI without hand-rolling thresholds.
• Migrating off legacy Code Climate Quality to Qlty without losing config.

Step 1 - Install (Qlty CLI path)

# macOS / Linux
curl https://qlty.sh -o install-qlty.sh
sh install-qlty.sh

# Windows (PowerShell)
powershell -c "iwr https://qlty.sh | iex"

Per the Qlty quickstart (opens in new window), CLI verifies via gh attestation verify if downloaded from GitHub releases.

Step 2 - Initialize config

qlty init

Generates .qlty/qlty.toml baseline scoped to detected file types.

Step 3 - Legacy .codeclimate.yml

For teams still on the GitHub Code Climate App:

version: "2"
plugins:
  duplication:
    enabled: true
    config:
      languages:
        javascript:
          mass_threshold: 50
        python:
          mass_threshold: 32
        ruby:
          mass_threshold: 18
  fixme:
    enabled: true
  structure:
    enabled: true
exclude_patterns:
  - "config/"
  - "db/"
  - "dist/"
  - "features/"
  - "**/node_modules/"
  - "script/"
  - "**/spec/"
  - "**/test/"
  - "**/tests/"
  - "**/vendor/"
  - "**/*_test.go"
  - "**/*.d.ts"

Excluding **/test/** is required - qa-test-review owns test-code hygiene; qa-code-quality scopes production only.

Step 4 - Qlty .qlty/qlty.toml

Per the Qlty quickstart (opens in new window) structure:

config_version = "0"

[[source]]
name = "default"
default = true

[[plugin]]
name = "eslint"

[[plugin]]
name = "ruff"

[[plugin]]
name = "shellcheck"

# Per-tool exclude patterns
[[exclude]]
file_patterns = [
  "node_modules/**",
  "dist/**",
  "**/*.test.ts",
  "**/*.spec.ts",
  "tests/**",
  "vendor/**",
]

Discover available plugins:

qlty plugins list
qlty plugins enable eslint

Step 5 - Run analysis

# Lint changed files (default)
qlty check

# Lint everything
qlty check --all

# Just one tool
qlty check --all --filter=shellcheck

# Detect smells (duplication + complexity)
qlty smells --all

# Export top-complexity hotspots
qlty metrics --all --max-depth=2 --sort complexity --limit 10

Verify: assert qlty smells --all returns a manageable count before wiring the gate. If it surfaces excess pre-existing issues, raise the per-language mass_threshold or scope with qlty check --upstream main, then re-run.

Step 6 - CI gate

# GitHub Actions
- name: Qlty install
  run: curl https://qlty.sh -o install-qlty.sh && sh install-qlty.sh

- name: Qlty check
  run: qlty check --upstream main
  env:
    QLTY_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.QLTY_TOKEN }}

--upstream main scopes results to only the diff vs main - matches the "new issues only" workflow Qlty's PR feedback uses (per Qlty docs (opens in new window) section "Preventing new issues from merging").

Verify: run qlty check --upstream main locally (or open a test PR) and assert a newly introduced duplicate block fails while pre-existing findings stay green. If pre-existing issues also fail, confirm --upstream main is set and the base branch is correct, then re-run.

Worked example

A team runs a JS + Python monorepo with a legacy .codeclimate.yml (duplication mass_threshold 50 for javascript, 32 for python) and wants PR-scoped gating on Qlty.

1. Install the CLI and run qlty init - it writes a baseline .qlty/qlty.toml scoped to the detected file types.
2. Run qlty config migrate to carry the legacy duplication thresholds and exclude_patterns into qlty.toml, then enable the linters: qlty plugins enable eslint and qlty plugins enable ruff.
3. Add an [[exclude]] block with tests/**, node_modules/**, dist/**, and vendor/** so deliberate test-code repetition (owned by qa-test-review) never trips duplication checks.
4. Run qlty smells --all on the brownfield repo - it surfaces hundreds of pre-existing duplications. Instead of blocking every PR, scope the gate with qlty check --upstream main so only new-diff issues fail.
5. Wire that command into CI with QLTY_TOKEN set. A PR that introduces a new duplicate block in src/ now fails the gate, while the pre-existing findings stay green.

Result: production code gets duplication and complexity gating on the diff only, tests are excluded, and the legacy .codeclimate.yml migrates to qlty.toml without losing its thresholds.

Anti-patterns

Limitations

• Code Climate Velocity remains a SaaS dashboard; some legacy features (Test Coverage, Engineering Analytics) sunset on migration to Qlty.
• The .codeclimate.yml engines: syntax (v1) is deprecated; use plugins: (v2) per the schema in this skill.

References

• Qlty docs (opens in new window) - platform overview, plugin catalog, exclusion patterns
• Qlty quickstart (opens in new window) - install, init, check, smells commands
• Qlty migration guide (opens in new window) - .codeclimate.yml to qlty.toml mapping, performed by qlty config migrate