The rules were written down. Nobody followed them. Then CI went red on day one

My project's docs had rules. "One document, one responsibility." "Split anything over 45 lines." I wrote that. The day before yesterday. Here's how that was going. Folders with no README (no index): 25 out of 37 The folder holding our engineering rules: 11 files, zero index Documents breaking the 45-line rule: 47 Largest offender: 1,203 lines Writing a rule down does not make it a rule. Obvious, I know. But there is something about being handed a list of 47 documents where you personally broke your own rule that stops being funny halfway down. (The me of two days ago fully intended to follow it.) I rewrote the rules themselves, and the rules file hit 150 lines The plan was already clear: let a machine enforce this. Fail CI. Which meant writing the rules properly first. README required, folder layout, update obligations, what CI actually checks. By the time it was all in there, the rules file was over 150 lines. The rules file was breaking the 45-line rule. Now, if you say "well, the rules file is special, it gets an exemption" — what have you just done? You have created the precedent "the rules are exempt," and it is permanent from that day. From then on, every time someone crosses 45 lines, they get to say "the rules file does it too." And they're right. So I split it. Eight files, all under 45 lines. If I can't follow my own rule, the rule was never worth writing. The moment CI landed, 63 existing violations bared their teeth On to the real work: write the checker, wire it into CI. Run it, and of course: 63 violations Everything fails. All red. Files I'm about to touch and files nobody has opened in months, equally red. Humanity is offered two choices here. Fix all 63 first, then turn on CI (including the 1,203-line monster) Add an ignore list, silence the 63, move on Tempting, isn't it? Option 2. It was to me. A .lintignore with 63 lines in it and a comment saying "remove later." So when exactly are you removing that list? Think about what that file actually is.