Zerum

Zerum is a Rust-native, deterministic-first code governance tool for Python — Credo for Python.

v0.2.0 delivers roughly 75 native checks (ZR001–ZR510) with explainable findings, human and json output, and no dependency on external linters or LLMs.

Zerum is not a Ruff replacement. It focuses on maintainability, consistency, architecture boundaries, and deterministic AI-slop patterns.

Install

cargo install zerum

Requires Rust 1.70+ (see rust-version in Cargo.toml).

Quick start

cargo build
cargo run -- list-checks
cargo run -- check path/to/python/project
cargo run -- explain ZR001
cargo run -- init

zerum init writes zerum.toml from zerum.toml.example.

Exit codes (check)

Rule categories (v0.2.0)

Run zerum list-checks for the full catalog. Use zerum explain ZR### for rationale, false positives, tradeoffs, and remediation.

Output formats

cargo run -- check . --format human    # default
cargo run -- check . --format json

SARIF, Markdown, review, and external checker orchestration are out of scope for v0.2.0.

Tutorial

Educational material lives under docs/tutorial/:

• 00 — Introduction
• 01 — Static analysis basics
• 02 — Parsing Python in Rust
• 03 — Building a rule engine
• 04 — Writing checks
• 05 — Explain mode and configuration
• 12 — Roadmap

Development

CI runs lint, tests, coverage, and regression suites on push/PR (see .github/workflows/ci.yml).

cargo test
cargo clippy -- -D warnings
cargo run -- check tests/fixtures/bad_project
cargo run -- check tests/fixtures/arch_violation

Category fixtures: consistency_project, refactor_project, design_project, ai_slop_project, warning_project.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md. Release notes: v0.1.0 · v0.2.0. Publishing: docs/RELEASING.md.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.