Configuration and Ignoring Files

papertowel provides several layers of control over which files are analysed and which findings are reported.

.papertowel.toml

Drop a .papertowel.toml in your repository root to configure detectors, severity thresholds, and path exclusions. Every section is optional — missing sections use sensible defaults.

[detectors]
lexical = true
comments = true
structure = true
readme = true
metadata = true
commit_pattern = true
tests = true
workflow = true
maintenance = true
promotion = true
name_credibility = true
idiom_mismatch = true
prompt = true
security = true

[severity]
minimum = "medium"   # "low", "medium", or "high"

[scrubber]
aggression = "moderate"  # "gentle", "moderate", or "aggressive"

[exclude]
paths = [
    "vendor/",
    "generated/**/*.rs",
]

Patterns in [exclude].paths use gitignore syntax and are merged with the .papertowelignore file described below.

.papertowelignore

Create a .papertowelignore file in your repo root to list paths that should be skipped entirely. The syntax is identical to .gitignore.

# Build output
target/

# Vendored code we don't control
third_party/

# Files that legitimately contain slop vocabulary
src/scrubber/lexical.rs

Both scan and scrub honour this file. Ignored files are never read by any detector or transform.

Inline Directives

For finer-grained control, papertowel recognises two comment directives that can be placed directly in source files.

papertowel:ignore-file

Place this directive in any comment near the top of a file to tell papertowel to skip the entire file. This is useful when a file must contain slop vocabulary (for example, a test fixture or a reference corpus).

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
// papertowel:ignore-file
pub const SLOP_WORDS: &[&str] = &["robust", "seamless", "delve"];
}

The directive works with any single-line comment style:

# papertowel:ignore-file
SLOP = ["robust", "seamless", "delve"]

-- papertowel:ignore-file
SELECT * FROM slop_words;

papertowel:ignore-next-line

Suppresses findings that start on the immediately following line. Use this when a single line legitimately triggers a detector but the rest of the file should still be analysed.

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
// papertowel:ignore-next-line
let description = "A robust and comprehensive guide";
}

Multiple directives can appear in the same file:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
fn build_corpus() -> Vec<&'static str> {
    vec![
        // papertowel:ignore-next-line
        "delve",
        // papertowel:ignore-next-line
        "facilitate",
        "normal_word",
    ]
}
}

Precedence

Suppression layers are evaluated in order:

1. .papertowelignore / [exclude].paths — file is never opened.
2. papertowel:ignore-file — file is read but all detectors are skipped.
3. papertowel:ignore-next-line — detectors run, but findings on the suppressed line are removed from the report.