no-todo-comments

Flag TODO, FIXME, HACK, and XXX comments so they are resolved before merging.

Rule details

TODO comments are useful during development but should not accumulate in the main branch. This rule uses ctx.grepFiles to scan all source files for common task-marker comments. It uses warning severity so it does not block CI, but makes the comments visible in every check run.

Examples of incorrect code

src/helpers/git.ts

// TODO: handle merge conflicts
// FIXME: this breaks on Windows
// HACK: workaround for upstream bug
// XXX: revisit this logic

Examples of correct code

src/helpers/git.ts

// Proper implementation with no deferred work

Rule implementation

/// <reference path="../rules.d.ts" />

export default {
  rules: {
    "no-todo-comments": {
      description: "TODO and FIXME comments should be resolved before merging",
      severity: "warning",
      async check(ctx) {
        const matches = await ctx.grepFiles(
          /\/\/\s*(TODO|FIXME|HACK|XXX):/i,
          "src/**/*.ts"
        );
        for (const match of matches) {
          ctx.report.warning({
            message: `${match.content.trim()} — resolve before merging`,
            file: match.file,
            line: match.line,
          });
        }
      },
    },
  },
} satisfies RuleSet;

When to use it

When you want visibility into deferred work and want to prevent TODO comments from accumulating over time. Change severity to "error" and use ctx.report.violation() to make it a hard blocker.

When not to use it

When TODO comments are intentional documentation (e.g., tracked by a separate tool that creates issues from TODO comments).