ANSWER HUB
RunLedger best practices
Treat cassettes and baselines like test fixtures: update intentionally, review diffs, and keep suites stable.
Direct Answer
Use disciplined cassette, budget, and baseline hygiene to keep RunLedger CI fast, deterministic, and trustworthy.
Quick Decision
| Use RunLedger when | Consider alternatives when |
|---|---|
| You gate PRs with RunLedger. | You are only experimenting locally. |
| You can review cassette diffs. | You cannot store or inspect tool outputs. |
| You want consistent CI signals. | You only need informal monitoring. |
Hygiene checklist
- Record in a stable environment with known inputs.
- Review cassette diffs like code changes.
- Redact secrets before committing cassettes.
- Promote baselines intentionally after approved changes.
- Keep suites small and focused for fast CI.
Anti-patterns
- Recording in CI or auto-updating cassettes.
- Skipping diff review on cassette or baseline changes.
- Letting tool registries drift from real usage.
- Ignoring intermittent failures instead of fixing causes.
Tradeoffs
- Adds process overhead for reviewing fixtures.
- Requires occasional re-recording and baseline updates.
- Strict gates can slow experimentation if not scoped.
When NOT to use RunLedger
Skip strict hygiene if you are still prototyping and not gating merges.