Per-path overrides

[[overrides]] blocks in cofferdam.toml scope a single check's configuration to files matching a path glob, while every other check keeps running on those files. They sit between the two coarser tools:

• .cofferdamignore excludes files from all checks (see Ignoring files).
• inline // cofferdam-ignore directives suppress findings per file or per line, applied by hand (see Suppression directives).

A [checks."X"] block, by contrast, configures a check globally. Overrides fill the gap: relax or retune one check for a path pattern without silencing it everywhere or annotating every file.

The canonical motivating case: test files (**/*.test.ts(x)) legitimately have long describe/it callbacks, so Readability.MaxFunctionLength flags them as noise — but you still want layer rules, unused-import detection, and everything else running on those files.

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Schema

Each [[overrides]] block has a paths array of globs and a [overrides.checks."Category.Name"] sub-table per check it retunes:

# Global defaults still apply everywhere unless an override changes them.
[checks."Readability.MaxFunctionLength"]
limit = 50

[[overrides]]
paths = ["**/*.test.ts", "**/*.test.tsx"]

# Relax the function-length limit for test files...
[overrides.checks."Readability.MaxFunctionLength"]
limit = 400

# ...and turn off orphan-export detection on them entirely.
[overrides.checks."Design.OrphanExport"]
disabled = true

[[overrides]]
paths = ["src/legacy/**"]
[overrides.checks."Refactor.CyclomaticComplexity"]
severity = "info"

An [overrides.checks."X"] table accepts:

Key	Effect
any check option (e.g. limit)	Overlaid on the global option bag for matching files. Validated against the check's schema at load time, exactly like a [checks."X"] block.
severity	"info", "low", "medium", "high", or "critical" — the severity stamped on this check's findings for matching files.
disabled	true skips the check entirely for matching files; false re-enables it (so a later block can undo an earlier one).

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Path matching

Globs are written project-root-relative in forward-slash form and matched with the same engine as [public_api].exports: * matches within a path segment, ** matches across directory separators. The project root is the directory containing cofferdam.toml.

paths = ["**/*.test.tsx"]   # any test file at any depth
paths = ["src/legacy/**"]   # everything under src/legacy
paths = ["src/api/*.ts"]    # direct children of src/api only

A path is matched if it matches any glob in the block's paths array.

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Precedence

Overrides cascade. The global [checks."X"] value (or the check's built-in default) is the base; each [[overrides]] block whose paths match the file is applied in declaration order, and the last matching block wins per key.

[[overrides]]
paths = ["src/**"]
[overrides.checks."Readability.MaxFunctionLength"]
limit = 200

[[overrides]]
paths = ["**/*.test.tsx"]
[overrides.checks."Readability.MaxFunctionLength"]
limit = 400

A file at src/Lobby.test.tsx matches both blocks; the second is declared later, so its limit = 400 wins. Reorder the blocks to flip the precedence.

This is the same mental model as ESLint's overrides array or cascading .gitignore rules: order is meaningful, later entries refine earlier ones.

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What overrides do not touch

• Other checks keep running. Disabling or relaxing one check on a glob leaves every other check fully active on those files — that's the whole point.
• [layers], [boundaries], [invariants], [public_api] are project-graph rules with their own path scoping; overrides target per-check options/severity, not those blocks.
• Inline suppressions and .cofferdamignore are unaffected and compose normally: a file excluded by .cofferdamignore is never analyzed, so no override applies to it.