refactor: improve flake8 configuration and workflow

- Add comprehensive .flake8 configuration file
- Exclude site-packages and non-project directories
- Update flake8 workflow step to only check project files
- Add clear error reporting in CI workflow
- Set standard Python code style settings

Author: SaahilParmar

.flake8

@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+[flake8]
+# Exclude patterns for directories and files
+exclude = 
+    .venv/*,
+    .git/*,
+    __pycache__/*,
+    build/*,
+    dist/*,
+    *.pyc,
+    *.egg-info,
+    .eggs/*,
+    .tox/*,
+    .pytest_cache/*,
+    venv/*,
+    env/*,
+    */site-packages/*,
+    allure-report/*,
+    allure-results/*,
+    htmlcov/*
+
+# Maximum line length
+max-line-length = 120
+
+# Ignore specific errors/warnings:
+# E226: Missing whitespace around arithmetic operator
+# W503: Line break occurred before binary operator (conflicts with W504)
+ignore = E226, W503

.github/workflows/ci.yml

@@ -80,10 +80,16 @@ jobs:
       run: |
         source .venv/bin/activate
         pip install flake8
-        # Stop the build if there are Python syntax errors or undefined names
-        flake8 . --count --select=E9,F63,F7,F82 --show-source --statistics
-        # Exit-zero treats all errors as warnings
-        flake8 . --count --exit-zero --max-complexity=10 --max-line-length=127 --statistics
+        
+        # First check for critical errors (syntax errors and undefined names)
+        echo "Checking for critical errors..."
+        flake8 utils/ tests/ conftest.py setup.sh validate_workflow.py \
+          --count --select=E9,F63,F7,F82 --show-source --statistics
+        
+        # Then run full lint check on project files
+        echo "Running full lint check..."
+        flake8 utils/ tests/ conftest.py setup.sh validate_workflow.py \
+          --count --statistics
     
     - name: Run smoke tests
       run: |