Certification & AI Integration¶

FastC provides built-in certification tooling designed for safety-critical development workflows and AI/Agent integration. This page covers generating compliance reports, integrating with CI/CD pipelines, and using FastC with AI coding assistants.

Overview¶

The cert-report command generates machine-readable compliance reports that can be:

Parsed by AI agents for automated code review
Used in CI/CD pipelines for compliance gates
Submitted as evidence for DO-178C and ISO 26262 certification audits
Tracked over time for compliance metrics

Quick Start¶

# Generate JSON report (default - best for AI agents)
fastc cert-report src/main.fc

# Generate human-readable text report
fastc cert-report src/main.fc --format text

# Generate compact JSON for CI/CD
fastc cert-report src/main.fc --format compact

# Fail if non-compliant (for CI/CD gates)
fastc cert-report src/main.fc --fail-on-violation

Report Formats¶

JSON Format (Default)¶

Best for AI agents and programmatic processing:

fastc cert-report src/main.fc --format json

Output structure:

{
  "fastc_version": "0.1.0",
  "timestamp": "2026-02-19T10:30:00Z",
  "file": "src/main.fc",
  "safety_level": "Standard",
  "status": "compliant",
  "summary": {
    "rules_checked": 7,
    "rules_passed": 7,
    "rules_failed": 0,
    "total_violations": 0,
    "functions_analyzed": 5
  },
  "rules": [
    {
      "rule_number": 1,
      "name": "Simple Control Flow (no recursion)",
      "enabled": false,
      "passed": true,
      "violation_count": 0
    },
    // ... more rules
  ],
  "certification": {
    "standard": "NASA/JPL Power of 10 (Partial)",
    "applicable_rules": [
      "DO-178C Table A-5 - Code Standards (partial)",
      "ISO 26262-6:2018 Table 1 - Design principles (partial)"
    ],
    "tool_qualification": "TQL-5 (Advisory)",
    "analysis_method": "Static Analysis"
  }
}

Compact JSON¶

Single-line JSON for parsing in shell scripts:

fastc cert-report src/main.fc --format compact

Text Format¶

Human-readable report for auditors:

fastc cert-report src/main.fc --format text

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║              FASTC COMPLIANCE REPORT                         ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

File:         src/main.fc
Safety Level: Standard
Status:       Compliant
...

AI Agent Integration¶

Prompting AI Assistants¶

When working with AI coding assistants, include the compliance report in your prompt:

I'm working on a safety-critical FastC project. Here's the current compliance report:

<report>
{paste JSON report here}
</report>

Please help me fix the Rule 2 violations (unbounded loops).

Automated Review Workflow¶

AI agents can parse the JSON report to:

Identify specific violations by rule number
Access exact source locations (line, column, offset)
Read the suggested fixes in help and note fields
Track compliance status over time

Example Python script for AI agent integration:

import json
import subprocess

# Generate compliance report
result = subprocess.run(
    ["fastc", "cert-report", "src/main.fc", "--format", "json"],
    capture_output=True,
    text=True
)
report = json.loads(result.stdout)

# Check compliance status
if report["status"] == "noncompliant":
    for rule in report["rules"]:
        if not rule["passed"]:
            for violation in rule.get("violations", []):
                print(f"Line {violation['location']['line']}: {violation['message']}")
                if violation.get("help"):
                    print(f"  Fix: {violation['help']}")

CI/CD Integration¶

GitHub Actions¶

name: FastC Compliance Check

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  compliance:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install FastC
        run: cargo install --path crates/fastc

      - name: Check Compliance
        run: |
          fastc cert-report src/*.fc \
            --safety-level=critical \
            --format json \
            --output compliance-report.json \
            --fail-on-violation

      - name: Upload Report
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: compliance-report
          path: compliance-report.json

GitLab CI¶

compliance:
  stage: test
  script:
    - cargo install --path crates/fastc
    - fastc cert-report src/*.fc --safety-level=critical --fail-on-violation
  artifacts:
    reports:
      dotenv: compliance-report.json

Jenkins Pipeline¶

pipeline {
    agent any
    stages {
        stage('Compliance') {
            steps {
                sh 'fastc cert-report src/*.fc --format json --output report.json'
                archiveArtifacts artifacts: 'report.json'
            }
        }
    }
    post {
        always {
            script {
                def report = readJSON file: 'report.json'
                if (report.status != 'compliant') {
                    error "Compliance check failed: ${report.summary.total_violations} violations"
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Project-Wide Reports¶

For multi-file projects, use the --project flag:

fastc cert-report src/*.fc --project --project-name="FlightController"

This generates an aggregated report:

{
  "fastc_version": "0.1.0",
  "timestamp": "2026-02-19T10:30:00Z",
  "project_name": "FlightController",
  "safety_level": "Standard",
  "status": "compliant",
  "summary": {
    "files_analyzed": 10,
    "files_compliant": 10,
    "files_non_compliant": 0,
    "total_violations": 0,
    "total_functions": 47
  },
  "files": [
    // Individual file reports
  ]
}

Safety Levels¶

Level	Command	Use Case
Standard	`--safety-level=standard`	General development (default)
Critical	`--safety-level=critical`	Safety-critical systems (all P10 rules)
Relaxed	`--safety-level=relaxed`	Prototyping (no P10 checks)

# For safety-critical applications (aerospace, medical)
fastc cert-report src/*.fc --safety-level=critical

# For prototyping (skip compliance checks)
fastc cert-report src/*.fc --safety-level=relaxed

Certification Standards¶

FastC compliance reports reference these certification standards:

DO-178C (Aerospace)¶

Section 6.3.4 - Source Code
Table A-5 - Code Standards

ISO 26262 (Automotive)¶

Part 6:2018 Table 1 - Design principles at software unit level

MISRA C¶

FastC's Power of 10 rules overlap significantly with MISRA C:2012 guidelines.

Tool Qualification¶

The compliance report includes tool qualification information:

{
  "certification": {
    "tool_qualification": "TQL-5 (Advisory)",
    "analysis_method": "Static Analysis"
  }
}

TQL-5 indicates the tool provides advisory information but does not make final compliance decisions. For full certification, combine FastC reports with:

Manual code review
Unit testing coverage
Dynamic analysis (sanitizers, fuzzing)
Formal verification (where applicable)

Best Practices¶

For AI-Assisted Development¶

Generate reports before AI review - Include compliance status in prompts
Request specific rule fixes - Use rule numbers to focus AI attention
Verify AI fixes - Re-run compliance check after AI modifications
Track compliance trends - Store reports for historical analysis

For CI/CD Pipelines¶

Use --fail-on-violation - Prevent non-compliant code from merging
Archive reports - Keep compliance evidence for audits
Use compact format - Faster parsing in automated scripts
Set appropriate safety level - Critical for safety-critical, Standard for general

For Certification Audits¶

Generate project reports - Use --project for full coverage
Use text format - Human-readable for auditor review
Document safety level - Explain why Standard vs Critical
Combine with test reports - Show coverage alongside compliance