Exclusion Filters

Overview

Not every pull request or file change reflects meaningful engineering work. Exclusion filters let you remove noise from your scoring data so metrics stay accurate and useful.

There are two types of filters: PR exclusion filters that skip entire pull requests, and diff file exclusion patterns that remove specific files from the diff before analysis.

PR Exclusion Filters

PR exclusion filters prevent entire pull requests from being scored. Configure these on the repository settings page.

Common use cases:

  • Revert PRs -- PRs that revert previous changes don't represent new engineering effort. Exclude PRs with titles matching patterns like Revert "...".
  • Bot-authored PRs -- Dependabot, Renovate, and other automated PRs inflate volume without reflecting team output. Exclude by author.
  • Title patterns -- Exclude PRs matching specific title patterns, such as release PRs, version bumps, or changelog updates.

When a PR is excluded, it does not appear in scoring data, leaderboards, or contributor profiles.

Diff File Exclusion Patterns

Diff file exclusion patterns use gitignore-style syntax to remove specific files from the diff before it's sent to the AI for analysis. The PR is still scored, but the excluded files don't influence the result.

Common patterns to exclude:

  • Lock files -- package-lock.json, yarn.lock, pnpm-lock.yaml. These are large, machine-generated, and don't reflect engineering decisions.
  • Generated code -- *.generated.ts, *.gen.go, schema.sql dumps. Code generation output inflates diff size without corresponding complexity.
  • Build artifacts -- dist/**, build/**. Compiled output that shouldn't factor into scoring.
  • Codegen and schema files -- GraphQL generated types, Prisma client output, OpenAPI generated clients.

Why This Matters

Without diff file exclusions, a PR that updates one line of application code but regenerates a 2,000-line schema file would receive an inflated score. Exclusion patterns ensure the AI evaluates the actual engineering work, not the machine-generated side effects.