Profiles

Profiles are predefined rule sets that make it easy to configure behave-lint for common use cases without listing individual rule IDs.

Built-in profiles

Profile	Description	Rules enabled
recommended	All rules except pedantic (BP). Good default for most projects.	43 rules (BC, BD, BK, BX, BS, BSEC, BI18N, BACC)
strict	All rules including pedantic. Maximum enforcement.	50 rules (all)
minimal	Only correctness and step-definition rules. Catches real bugs only.	15 rules (BC, BD)

Usage

CLI

# Use the recommended profile
behave-lint features/ --profile recommended

# Use the strict profile (all rules)
behave-lint features/ --profile strict

# Use the minimal profile (correctness + step definitions only)
behave-lint features/ --profile minimal

Configuration file

In pyproject.toml:

[tool.behave-lint]
profile = "recommended"

Environment variable

export BEHAVE_LINT_PROFILE=strict
behave-lint features/

Precedence

Profiles are resolved early in the configuration pipeline, after built-in defaults but before pyproject.toml and CLI overrides.

This means:

• --select and --ignore from CLI or config override the profile's select/ignore lists.
• A profile specified in pyproject.toml is overridden by --profile on the CLI.

Defaults → Profile → pyproject.toml → Environment → CLI overrides

Combining with --select and --ignore

You can combine a profile with explicit --select or --ignore:

# Use recommended profile but also enable BP001
behave-lint features/ --profile recommended --select BP001

# Use strict profile but disable BX001
behave-lint features/ --profile strict --ignore BX001

When --select is specified, it replaces the profile's select list. When --ignore is specified, it replaces the profile's ignore list.

Default behavior

If no profile is specified, behave-lint enables all non-experimental, non-deprecated rules by default (equivalent to recommended without the pedantic exclusions).