Formatting BUILD files

heph tool build-fmt rewrites BUILD files in place to a canonical style — consistent indentation, argument spacing, and quote normalization. Run it with --check in CI to enforce formatting without writing.

Usage

terminal

heph tool build-fmt              # format every BUILD file in the workspace
heph tool build-fmt //pkg/...    # scope to a package matcher
heph tool build-fmt -            # read from stdin, write formatted result to stdout

With no argument the formatter walks the whole workspace and rewrites every BUILD file it finds. With a package matcher, only the matched packages are touched.

The stdin mode (-) reads source from stdin and writes the formatted result to stdout. It is useful for editor integrations and shell pipelines.

In CI

Pass --check to report unformatted files and exit non-zero without writing:

terminal

heph tool build-fmt --check

A CI job that requires --check to pass keeps the workspace consistently formatted. See Using heph in CI for a representative setup.

Opting a file out

Add # heph:fmt skip-file as the first comment in a BUILD file to leave it untouched by the formatter:

BUILD

# heph:fmt skip-file
target(name  =  "generated",   driver = "exec")   # preserved exactly as written

The directive must appear before the first statement. A file with this directive passes --check even when it is not formatted.

Configuration

The formatter reads the buildfile plugin options from .hephconfig. Both settings are shared with the buildfile provider, so the formatter and the provider always agree on which files are BUILD files and how they are indented.

.hephconfig

plugins:
  - builtin: buildfile
    options:
      indent: 4

Option	Type	Default	Description
indent	number	4	Spaces per indentation level.
patterns	string[]	["BUILD", "*.BUILD"]	File names (and globs) the formatter treats as BUILD files, matching what the buildfile provider uses.