Braces and Lint Config

The braces rule removes the braces around a single statement control flow body. It keeps them where removing them would change parsing (a dangling else, a declaration as the body, a statement without a trailing ; that the next line could continue) and where the block holds a comment. The rule page lists every case. Line breaking is left to the formatter.

Lint ConfigCopy Anchor Link

A repo that enforces braces through its linter keeps them, so Stanza does not fight the lint rule. Without a flag, Stanza walks up from each file's directory and reads the lint config it finds:

• flat ESLint (eslint.config.*) and legacy ESLint (.eslintrc*, eslintConfig in package.json): the curly rule;
• Biome (biome.json, biome.jsonc): useBlockStatements, the style group turned on, or all: true;
• Oxlint (.oxlintrc.json, .oxlintrc.jsonc, oxlint.config.ts): curly or eslint/curly, categories.style, and overrides.

files, ignores and includes scoping applies per file, so a config that enforces braces only under src/ leaves the other files to the rule. Any config that enforces braces, or that Stanza cannot read, keeps braces.

When a config is unknown and no config turns braces on, Stanza prints one line on stderr per run:

stanza: could not tell whether <files> enforces braces, so braces stay; pass --braces or --no-braces to settle it

Under --fix --stdin --json stderr carries the findings, so the notice is not printed there.

FlagsCopy Anchor Link

--braces turns the rule on even where lint config turns it off or Stanza cannot read the config. --no-braces turns it off and keeps the blank line rules. With either flag the config is not read and no notice prints. Passing both is a usage error. stanza hook takes --braces, --no-braces and --hunks in its command. See CLI.

ExampleCopy Anchor Link

The biome.json beside this file turns useBlockStatements on, so the braces around continue stay while the blank line rules still run.

function keep(items: Item[]) {
  for (const item of items) {
    if (!item) {
      continue;
    }
  }
  return items;
}

function keep(items: Item[]) {
  for (const item of items) {
    if (!item) {
      continue;
    }
  }

  return items;
}