overview / rules / baseline-overwrite-outside
baseline-overwrite-outside
`<verb>` onto an existing file outside the project tree replaces it, and git cannot undo it there.
what it refuses, and what it lets through
In one line, from native/baseline.h: mv/cp/install onto an existing file outside the project.
The same loss, spelled without deleting anything. A moved file still exists elsewhere; what is lost is a destination that already held a file (the loss > a.txt causes). So only the last operand is judged, and only when it is an existing non-directory file outside the project tree.
From the comment in native/baseline.h above the code that decides it.
the refusal, as the agent reads it
rabadon BLOCKED this action.
Rule: baseline-overwrite-outside — `<verb>` onto an existing file outside the project tree replaces it, and git cannot undo it there
<verb> would overwrite '<destination>', which resolves to <resolved path>, outside the project tree (<project root>) — that file's contents are gone the moment it runs. Move it aside first, or write to a name nothing holds
Adjust the approach instead of retrying the same action.
(only the user can override this: they may add "baseline-overwrite-outside" to disabled[] in .rabadon/guard.json or run `rabadon off`. If this rule looks wrong for the task, stop and ask the user; do not switch supervision off yourself.)
Rendered from the strings in native/baseline.h and the envelope in native/gate_pre.h (Judge::refuse). A word in <angle brackets> is filled in from the command at the moment it is refused.
in watch mode the same verdict is recorded, and nothing is stopped
rabadon (watch) would have blocked this.
Rule: baseline-overwrite-outside — `<verb>` onto an existing file outside the project tree replaces it, and git cannot undo it there
<verb> would overwrite '<destination>', which resolves to <resolved path>, outside the project tree (<project root>) — that file's contents are gone the moment it runs. Move it aside first, or write to a name nothing holds
Nothing was stopped. `rabadon on` makes this a real refusal.
switching it off
Only the user can switch it off, by id, in the project's guard:
{ "disabled": ["baseline-overwrite-outside"] }
or by pausing supervision with rabadon off, which records the change. Every other rule keeps running.
in the field
No record in the published field dataset (field.jsonl, 778 records, 2026-07-27 to 2026-08-26) carries this id.
The dataset is on the field page.