Vikela 🛡️

Python mutation guardrails and AST linter for JsonPit.
The defensive shield protecting distributed state from concurrent cloud replica stomps.

Overview

Vikela (isiZulu: "to protect / shield") provides static analysis and mutation guardrails for JsonPit and its surrounding framework across the fleet. It functions both as a standalone CLI (vikela) and as a native Pylint checker plugin (pylint --load-plugins=vikela).

The Twin-Shield Doctrine

• C# development (.NET): Checked by RaiGuard.
• Python development: Checked by vikela; JsonPit itself enforces runtime mutation guards.
• The Straightening Action (--qondisa): An official first-class alias for --fix (isiZulu: "to straighten out / rectify"), reserved for proven safe repairs. Version 4.6.0 provides suggestions and has no approved automatic rewrites.

Core Rules

Terminal & CLI Experience

# Standard Scan
󰞀 vikela .

# Request safe fixes (v4.6.0 reports suggestions and leaves source unchanged)
vikela src/ --qondisa

# Pure JSON for CI/CD audit pipelines
vikela src/ --json

IDE & Editor Integration

VS Code

Configure in .vscode/settings.json:

{
  "pylint.args": [
    "--load-plugins=vikela"
  ]
}

JupyterLab

%load_ext vikela

%%vikela
# Checks this cell WITHOUT executing it

Visual Identity & Heraldry

Vikela's emblem is the Modernist Ihawu—drawing from the elliptical geometry of the traditional Nguni shield, anchored by the central Qondisa Axis (the plumb line that straightens crooked code).

• Design Specification: docs/VIKELA_VISUAL_IDENTITY_AND_ICON_SPEC.md
• Master Vector: assets/logo.svg
• Curator: Koyo (Chief Marketing & Web Design Assistant)

Version 4.6.0 installation and contracts

Vikela is optional development tooling alongside RAIkeep 4.6.0. Neither jsonpit nor jpit depends on it. Until publication, install from this checkout in a development virtual environment:

python -m pip install -e '.[dev]'
python -m pytest
vikela -v

After publication, install vikela==4.6.0 for the independent CLI, or vikela[pylint]==4.6.0 inside the project's interpreter for editor checks. vikela[notebook]==4.6.0 adds IPython support in the chosen kernel interpreter. A global CLI environment alone does not expose the checker in another venv.

Exit codes: 0 clean; 1 findings; 2 syntax/configuration; 4 internal/environment failure. Pylint retains its own native exit codes. --json emits a pure array; operational errors go to stderr. Scans do not import or execute the inspected application. --fix and --qondisa are exact aliases; no speculative field-dropping rewrite is available in 4.6.0.

• Rules, shared project configuration and analysis limits
• VS Code, PyCharm and JupyterLab setup

The CLI and plugin share [tool.vikela] configuration in pyproject.toml, with a disable array of logical rule IDs. Checks are bounded and conservative: no findings does not prove arbitrary dynamic code safe. Notebook scans follow source-cell document order, not previous kernel execution order.

Publication/provisioning is orchestrated by Engenho; production server nodes do not receive development lint tooling by default. Native PyCharm inspections are milestone 2; milestone 1 supplies an External Tool configuration.