cross_file

A source must hold a relation to one or more targets (or, for resolves, the filesystem). The source is a single { file, extract } — or, for the set relations only (subset / superset / set_equals), { files: <glob>, extract }, whose matches are read and whose extracted values are unioned into one set (the “every *hl-X* across runtime/doc/*.txt must equal the default link X set in highlight.c” shape — symbol-set / cross-language parity). For the value relations, targets is either a { files: <glob>, extract } map (one query applied per glob match) or a sequence of { file, extract } (heterogeneous pins); extract is the same one-of as registry_paths_resolve (toml/json/yaml JSONPath, lines, regex group 1) plus whole_file: {} (the entire file content as one value — for byte-level content equality without identical’s no-extract/no-normalize constraint). relation (default equals) selects the assertion, checked independently per target; the shape (which of source.file/source.files, source.extract, targets is present) follows the relation and is validated at load:

relation	source ⇒	asserts (per target)
equals	exactly one value v	every target value == v
subset	a set S	S ⊆ T (singleton S = membership)
superset	a set S	S ⊇ T (the source covers every target value)
set_equals	a set S	S == T
identical	whole file content	the target is byte-identical (no extract; optional skip_header_lines)
resolves	a set of paths	each path exists on disk (no targets; the forward half of registry_paths_resolve)

normalize relaxes the value comparison — a single transform or an ordered list applied left-to-right (normalize: [trim, semver-minor]): trim, lower, semver-major (the leading MAJOR band — the dotnet SDK shape), and semver-minor (the leading MAJOR.MINOR band, each token’s leading digits with a non-digit prefix stripped — so 4.36-dev, 4.36.0, pnpm@11.3.0 and >=22.13 reconcile; the protobuf / pnpm version-format case). identical reads whole files byte-for-byte (normalize/extract do not apply), with an optional skip_header_lines to ignore a differing license/header; resolves extracts paths from the source (no targets) and checks each exists relative to the source file’s directory. Non-literal extracted values (interpolation / antiquotation) are skipped, not failed — except a whole_file: {} source/target, whose single value (the entire file content) is compared verbatim even when it embeds ${…}/{{…}} markers (those mark interpolated paths, not content); whole_file still honours normalize, so it sits between a query-extract and a no-normalize identical. allow_missing_target controls absent files/values. equals requires the source to extract exactly one value; to pull the latest entry from a multi-match file (e.g. the newest version in a multi-release CHANGELOG.md), anchor the regex so it captures only the first match — regex: '(?s)\A.*?## (\d+\.\d+\.\d+)' ((?s) makes . cross newlines, \A anchors at the start, .*? reaches the first heading lazily) yields a single value (a leading ## Unreleased is skipped because the version pattern doesn’t match it). The released cross_file_value_equals is a byte-compatible alias (relation defaults to equals). Cross-file.

# equals (the default; the cross_file_value_equals shape)
- id: workspace-versions-coherent
  kind: cross_file
  source:  { file: Cargo.toml, extract: { toml: "$.workspace.package.version" } }
  targets: { files: "crates/*/Cargo.toml", extract: { toml: "$.package.version" } }
  relation: equals
  level: error

# subset — every catalog reference must resolve to a declared catalog key
- id: pnpm-catalog-refs-resolve
  kind: cross_file
  source:  { file: pnpm-workspace.yaml, extract: { yaml: "$.catalog.*" } }
  targets: { files: "packages/**/package.json", extract: { regex: 'catalog:(\S+)' } }
  relation: subset
  level: error

# identical — each crate README must mirror the workspace README byte-for-byte
- id: readme-mirrors-root
  kind: cross_file
  source:  { file: README.md }
  targets: { files: "crates/*/README.md" }
  relation: identical
  level: error

# resolves — every declared workspace member path must exist on disk
- id: workspace-members-exist
  kind: cross_file
  source: { file: Cargo.toml, extract: { toml: "$.workspace.members[*]" } }
  relation: resolves
  level: error

Options

Option	Type	Required	Default	Description
allow_missing_target	boolean
normalize	one of none | trim | lower | semver-major | semver-minor or list of one of none | trim | lower | semver-major | semver-minor			A normalize transform, or an ordered list of transforms applied left-to-right ([trim, semver-minor]). semver-major / semver-minor keep only the leading MAJOR / MAJOR.MINOR band (each token’s leading digits, leading non-digits stripped) — the protobuf / pnpm version-format reconcile.
relation	one of equals | subset | superset | set_equals | identical | resolves
skip_header_lines	integer (>= 0)
source	object	yes
targets	object or list of object

Plus the common level, id, and when fields. This rule analyses the whole repository, so it takes no paths. This table is generated from the JSON Schema; option types and defaults are authoritative.