CLI

The qualifier crate installs a binary called qualifier.

cargo install qualifier

Commands

qualifier
  attest    <artifact> [options]     Add an attestation
  show      <artifact>               Show attestations and scores
  score     [artifact...]            Compute and display scores
  ls        [--below N] [--kind K]   List artifacts by score/kind
  check     [--min-score N]          CI gate: exit non-zero if below threshold
  compact   <artifact> [options]     Compact a .qual file
  graph     [--format dot|json]      Visualize the dependency graph
  init                               Initialize qualifier in a repo
  praise    <artifact>               Show who attested and why

All commands that produce output accept --format json for machine-readable output.

Typical workflows

Record a quality concern

qualifier attest src/parser.rs --kind concern --score -30 \
  --summary "Panics on malformed UTF-8 input" \
  --suggested-fix "Replace .unwrap() on line 42 with error propagation" \
  --tag robustness --tag error-handling \
  --issuer "mailto:alice@example.com"

See scores for all artifacts

qualifier score

  ARTIFACT              RAW    EFF   STATUS
  lib/crypto            -20    -20   ██░░░░░░░░  blocker
  src/auth.rs           -30    -30   █░░░░░░░░░  blocker
  lib/http               50     50   ████████░░  healthy
  src/parser.rs            5      5   ██████░░░░  ok
  bin/server              50    -30   █░░░░░░░░░  blocker

CI gating

# In your CI pipeline
qualifier check --min-score 0

# Fails with exit code 1 if any artifact is below threshold
# Stderr shows which artifacts failed:
#   FAIL  lib/crypto      eff: -20  (threshold: 0)
#   FAIL  src/auth.rs     eff: -30  (threshold: 0)
#   FAIL  bin/server      eff: -30  (threshold: 0)

Show details for one artifact

qualifier show src/parser.rs

  src/parser.rs
  Raw score:       5
  Effective score: 5

  Attestations (3):
    [-30] concern     "Panics on malformed UTF-8 input"       alice  2026-02-24
    [+40] praise      "Excellent property-based test coverage" bob    2026-02-24
    [ -5] suggestion  "Consider adding fuzzing targets"        carol  2026-02-24

Compact old attestations

# Preview what compaction would do
qualifier compact src/parser.rs --dry-run

# Prune superseded attestations
qualifier compact src/parser.rs

# Collapse everything to a single epoch attestation
qualifier compact src/parser.rs --snapshot

# Compact every .qual file in the repo
qualifier compact --all

Visualize the dependency graph

# Output as Graphviz DOT
qualifier graph --format dot | dot -Tpng -o graph.png

# Output as JSON
qualifier graph --format json

Initialize qualifier in a repo

qualifier init

  Created qualifier.graph.jsonl (empty — populate with your dependency graph)
  Detected VCS: git
  Added *.qual merge=union to .gitattributes

List the worst offenders

qualifier ls --below 0
qualifier ls --kind blocker
qualifier ls --unqualified   # artifacts with no attestations

Batch attestation (for agents)

# Pipe JSONL attestations from stdin
cat attestations.jsonl | qualifier attest --stdin

Configuration

Qualifier uses layered configuration (highest wins):