Code Flags (Governing Code Quality, Security, and Sustainability)

Introduction

Code Flags act as governance enablers by continuously analysing code changes introduced through branches and pull requests. They ensure that quality, security, and sustainability risks are identified at the point where code is written and reviewed.

In addition to built-in quality and security intelligence, Code Flags support customer-defined governance rules, allowing organisations to extend governance to reflect their own engineering standards.

Governance Objective

The objective of Code Flags is to ensure that code entering the repository is:

• Secure by design

• Maintainable over time

• Aligned with organisational and architectural standards

• Unlikely to introduce regressions or hidden technical debt

This is achieved through a combination of platform-provided intelligence and customer-configured code flags.

What Code Flags Monitor

Code Flags continuously evaluate signals such as:

• Code smells and maintainability risks

• Bug and regression likelihood

• Performance and dependency risks

• Security vulnerabilities and misconfigurations (e.g., OWASP Top 10)

• Knowledge concentration and ownership gaps
  
  

In addition, customers can define new code flags to:

• Detect violations of organisation-specific coding conventions

• Apply domain-specific or platform-specific security rules

Each flag represents a codified governance expectation, automatically enforced across all relevant code changes.

Custom Code Governance

Custom Code Flags allow organisations to tailor governance without modifying developer workflows. These flags:

• Are evaluated automatically like built-in flags

• Appear consistently in health reports and deep-dive views

• Can be integrated into Git and IDE workflows for immediate feedback

This ensures governance evolves alongside the organisation’s technology stack and policies.

Linking Code Flags to Health Signals

Health reports identify where risk is accumulating; Code Flags explain why.

For example:

• Predictive Repository Health degradation can be traced to recurring custom architectural violations

• Sprint instability can originate from high-risk PRs flagged by internal rules

• Portfolio-level quality trends can reflect persistent security or maintainability deviations

This establishes a closed-loop governance model:
 Code-level signals → Health degradation → Targeted remediation

Diagnostic and Actionable Usage

Code Flags support two complementary modes:

1. Diagnostic governance – understanding what is going wrong and where

2. Actionable governance – resolving issues directly via Git and VS Code integrations

Custom and built-in flags follow the same lifecycle, ensuring a consistent governance experience.

Role in the Overall Governance Framework

Code Flags:

• Complement Process and Feature Flags by governing execution outcomes

• Power Predictive Repository Health with high-fidelity signals

• Feed Audit and Compliance with traceable, objective evidence

They form the technical integrity layer of the governance framework.

Conclusion

Code Flags ensure that governance adapts to both industry best practices and organisation-specific standards. By combining built-in intelligence with customer-defined rules, Cubyts enables flexible, scalable, and actionable code governance at developer speed.