Configuration ⚙️

Very Good CLI reads a project-level configuration file, very_good.yaml, to persist frequently used command-line arguments so that running the CLI locally produces the same results as running it on CI.

Where it lives

The very_good.yaml file sits at the root of your project. When you run a Very Good CLI command, the CLI searches for very_good.yaml starting from the current working directory and walks up through its ancestors. The closest file wins; configuration from ancestor directories is not merged. When no file is found, the CLI proceeds with an empty configuration.

This lets a single very_good.yaml at the repository root apply to commands run from any nested package.

Precedence

For any option, values are resolved in the following order, from highest priority to lowest:

Command line flag — an argument passed explicitly on the command line.
Configuration value — the corresponding value from very_good.yaml.
CLI default — the default value baked into the CLI (or null if the option has no default).

This means every value in very_good.yaml can be overridden per-invocation on the command line without editing the file.

Schema

Each top-level key in very_good.yaml maps to a Very Good CLI command. Every field mirrors a CLI flag using snake_case (e.g. --min-coverage becomes min_coverage); test.optimization is the one field that also accepts a map, grouping --optimization and --exclude-optimization together. Unrecognized keys cause the CLI to exit with a configuration error.

# very_good.yaml
test: {}
create: {}
dart:
  test: {}
packages:
  get: {}
  check:
    licenses: {}

`test`

Defaults for very_good test.

test:
  coverage: true
  optimization:
    enabled: true
    exclude:
      - test/integration
  concurrency: 8
  tags: my-tag
  exclude_coverage: '**/*.g.dart'
  exclude_tags: skip
  min_coverage: 95
  show_uncovered: true
  collect_coverage_from: all # imports | all
  update_goldens: true
  fail_fast: true
  dart_define:
    - FOO=bar
    - X=42
  dart_define_from_file: defines.env
  platform: chrome
  report_on:
    - lib/
    - packages/foo/lib/
  run_skipped: true
  flavor: staging
  timeout: 30
  file_reporter: json:reports/tests.json

Field	Type	Notes
`coverage`	`bool`	Whether to collect coverage information.
`optimization`	`bool` \| `map`	Whether to apply optimizations for test performance. See `optimization`.
`concurrency`	`int`	Positive integer. The number of concurrent test suites run.
`tags`	`string`	Run only tests associated with the specified tags.
`exclude_coverage`	`string`	Space-separated globs, relative to each package root, that exclude files from coverage.
`exclude_tags`	`string`	Run only tests that do not have the specified tags.
`min_coverage`	`number`	Between `0` and `100`. Enforces a minimum coverage percentage.
`show_uncovered`	`bool`	Whether to show uncovered lines when coverage is below 100%.
`collect_coverage_from`	`imports` \| `all`	Whether to collect coverage from imported files only or all files.
`update_goldens`	`bool`	Whether `matchesGoldenFile()` calls should update the golden files.
`fail_fast`	`bool`	Whether to stop running tests after the first failure.
`dart_define`	`string` \| `list`	Additional `--dart-define` values.
`dart_define_from_file`	`string` \| `list`	Paths of `.json` or `.env` files with `--dart-define-from-file` values.
`platform`	`string`	The platform to run tests on (`chrome`, `vm`, `android`, `ios`).
`report_on`	`string` \| `list`	File paths to report coverage information to.
`run_skipped`	`bool`	Whether to run skipped tests instead of skipping them.
`flavor`	`string`	The flavor to build for testing.
`timeout`	`int`	Positive integer (seconds). Maximum time tests may run before being killed.
`file_reporter`	`string`	Additional file reporter as `<name>:<path>` (e.g. `json:reports/tests.json`).

`optimization`

optimization accepts either a boolean or a map. A boolean is shorthand for enabled, so optimization: false and optimization: {enabled: false} are equivalent.

test:
  optimization:
    enabled: true
    exclude:
      - test/integration
      - test/**/serial_*_test.dart

Field	Type	Notes
`enabled`	`bool`	Whether to apply optimizations for test performance. Mirrors `--optimization`.
`exclude`	`string` \| `list`	Globs of test files to keep out of the optimized bundle. Mirrors `--exclude-optimization`.

Globs are matched against each test file's path relative to the package root and match everything nested underneath what they name, so test/integration excludes every test in that directory. ** matches zero or more directories, so test/**/serial_*_test.dart matches both test/serial_a_test.dart and test/nested/serial_a_test.dart. Matching is case-sensitive on every platform.

Excluded files still run, each as its own test suite, in their own isolate. See Skip optimization for specific tests.

With --recursive, the closest very_good.yaml applies to every package in the run and each glob is matched against the package currently being tested, so test/integration excludes that directory in every package. Per-package exclusions are not expressible.

`create`

Defaults for very_good create.

create:
  description: A configured project.
  org_name: com.very.good
  publishable: true
  template: my-template
  workspace: true

Field	Type	Notes
`description`	`string`	The description for the generated project.
`org_name`	`string`	The organization for the generated project.
`publishable`	`bool`	Whether the generated project is intended to be published.
`template`	`string`	The template used to generate the project.
`workspace`	`bool`	Whether the project resolves dependencies from a parent workspace.

`dart.test`

Defaults for very_good dart test. The fields mirror test, minus the Flutter-only flags (update_goldens, flavor, timeout, dart_define, dart_define_from_file) plus check_ignore.

dart:
  test:
    coverage: true
    optimization:
      enabled: true
      exclude:
        - test/integration
    concurrency: 8
    tags: my-tag
    exclude_coverage: '**/*.g.dart'
    exclude_tags: skip
    min_coverage: 95
    show_uncovered: true
    collect_coverage_from: all # imports | all
    fail_fast: true
    platform: chrome
    report_on:
      - lib/
      - packages/foo/lib/
    run_skipped: true
    check_ignore: false
    file_reporter: json:reports/tests.json

Field	Type	Notes
`coverage`	`bool`	Whether to collect coverage information.
`optimization`	`bool` \| `map`	Whether to apply optimizations for test performance. See `optimization`.
`concurrency`	`int`	Positive integer. The number of concurrent test suites run.
`tags`	`string`	Run only tests associated with the specified tags.
`exclude_coverage`	`string`	Space-separated globs, relative to each package root, that exclude files from coverage.
`exclude_tags`	`string`	Run only tests that do not have the specified tags.
`min_coverage`	`number`	Between `0` and `100`. Enforces a minimum coverage percentage.
`show_uncovered`	`bool`	Whether to show uncovered lines when coverage is below 100%.
`collect_coverage_from`	`imports` \| `all`	Whether to collect coverage from imported files only or all files.
`fail_fast`	`bool`	Whether to stop running tests after the first failure.
`platform`	`string`	The platform to run tests on (`chrome`, `vm`).
`report_on`	`string` \| `list`	File paths to report coverage information to.
`run_skipped`	`bool`	Whether to run skipped tests instead of skipping them.
`check_ignore`	`bool`	Whether to respect coverage ignore comments (e.g. `// coverage:ignore-line`).
`file_reporter`	`string`	Additional file reporter as `<name>:<path>` (e.g. `json:reports/tests.json`).

`packages.get`

Defaults for very_good packages get.

packages:
  get:
    recursive: true
    ignore:
      - example
      - integration_test

Field	Type	Notes
`recursive`	`bool`	Whether to install dependencies recursively for nested packages.
`ignore`	`string` \| `list`	Packages to exclude from installing dependencies.

`packages.check.licenses`

Defaults for very_good packages check licenses.

packages:
  check:
    licenses:
      ignore_retrieval_failures: true
      dependency_type:
        - direct-main
        - direct-dev
      allowed:
        - MIT
        - BSD-3-Clause
      skip_packages:
        - very_good_analysis
      reporter: csv # text | csv

Field	Type	Notes
`ignore_retrieval_failures`	`bool`	Whether to disregard licenses that failed to be retrieved.
`dependency_type`	`string` \| `list`	One or more of `direct-main`, `direct-dev`, `direct-overridden`, `transitive`.
`allowed`	`string` \| `list`	Only allow the use of certain licenses.
`forbidden`	`string` \| `list`	Deny the use of certain licenses. Cannot be combined with `allowed`.
`skip_packages`	`string` \| `list`	Packages to skip from having their licenses checked.
`reporter`	`text` \| `csv`	The format used to list all licenses.

info

Options that accept a list also accept a single string. For example, ignore: example is equivalent to ignore: [example].

Example

A single very_good.yaml at the root of a repository can capture the defaults for every Very Good CLI command used in that project:

# very_good.yaml
create:
  org_name: com.very.good
  workspace: true

test:
  min_coverage: 100
  exclude_coverage: '**/*.g.dart'
  report_on:
    - lib/

dart:
  test:
    min_coverage: 100
    exclude_coverage: '**/*.g.dart'
    report_on:
      - lib/

packages:
  get:
    recursive: true
  check:
    licenses:
      dependency_type:
        - direct-main
        - transitive
      allowed:
        - MIT
        - BSD-3-Clause
      reporter: csv

With the file above, running very_good test behaves the same as running very_good test --min-coverage 100 --exclude-coverage '**/*.g.dart' --report-on lib/. Any command-line flag still takes precedence, so very_good test --min-coverage 90 lowers the coverage threshold for that single run.

Where it lives​

Precedence​

Schema​

test​

optimization​

create​

dart.test​

packages.get​

packages.check.licenses​

Example​