• They represented a design-system migration as pulling out a tablecloth while people were still eating and sliding a new one in, lol.
  • When they explicitly banned the style prop with lint, the AI worked around it with a ref.
    • AI chooses the path of least resistance → make the right way the easiest way.

  • Notion also uses lint to apply restrictions in stages, moving from info to warning to error based on importance.

  • eslint-seatbelt (opens in a new window):

    • Configure lint and take the current error count as the baseline.
    • Anything above the baseline is an error I introduced; when existing errors are fixed, the baseline falls with them.
    • This prevents new errors without blocking a release today, while gradually reducing the total number of errors.
    • I wondered whether tracking only the number of rule violations would miss one deletion plus one addition. It solves that by tracking file, rule, and count.

References

NotionCustom ESLint ratcheting: how Notion modernizes code without slowing down developmentDiscover how Notion's innovative ratcheting system with custom ESLint rules gradually modernizes code, eliminates technical debt, and maintains high quality standards without sacrificing development speed or overwhelming engineers (opens in a new window)
GitHubGitHub - justjake/eslint-seatbelt: Gradually tighten ESLint rules in your codebaseGradually tighten ESLint rules in your codebase. Contribute to justjake/eslint-seatbelt development by creating an account on GitHub. (opens in a new window)