overview / rules / baseline-truncating-redirect

`baseline-truncating-redirect`

A redirection empties the file it points at, and there is no command on the line to name.

what it refuses, and what it lets through

In one line, from native/baseline.h: > onto a file outside the project.

> truncates its target before anything runs; redirections are not in argv, so they are judged here. /dev/ is where output is discarded on purpose.

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-truncating-redirect — a redirection empties the file it points at, and there is no command on the line to name
'<redirect> <target>' resolves to <resolved path>, outside the project tree (<project root>) — the contents are gone before anything runs
Adjust the approach instead of retrying the same action.
(only the user can override this: they may add "baseline-truncating-redirect" 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-truncating-redirect — a redirection empties the file it points at, and there is no command on the line to name
'<redirect> <target>' resolves to <resolved path>, outside the project tree (<project root>) — the contents are gone before anything runs
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-truncating-redirect"] }

or by pausing supervision with rabadon off, which records the change. Every other rule keeps running.

in the field

14 of the 778 records in the published field dataset (field.jsonl, 2026-07-27 to 2026-08-26) carry this id. STOP is a refusal in enforce mode; WOULD_BLOCK is the same verdict recorded in watch mode, where nothing is stopped.

event	records
STOP	8
WOULD_BLOCK	6

Counted from field.jsonl, the file the field page is built from.

measurements

the refusals that cannot be undone

baseline-truncating-redirect