Last reviewed Sep 6, 2026
A rule's severity is inherited by every violation it generates, so it's worth setting deliberately rather than defaulting to the highest option.
A practical guide
- Critical: a rule whose violation could create real legal, safety, or brand-damaging exposure if it shipped.
- High: a clear violation that should be fixed promptly, but wouldn't itself cause serious harm if briefly missed.
- Medium: worth catching and fixing, but not urgent enough to hold up other work.
- Low: a minor consistency issue, useful to track for the record.
When everything ends up Critical
If most of your rules end up Critical, that's usually a sign severity is being set defensively rather than realistically; see Rules that produce too many violations for a related signal to watch for.