textlint

<picture> <source media="(prefers-color-scheme: dark)" srcset="https://textlint.org/media/banner/banner_710x256.png"> <source media="(prefers-color-scheme: light)" srcset="https://textlint.org/media/logo/spaced/textlint-logo.png"> <img alt="textlint logo" src="https://textlint.org/media/logo/spaced/textlint-logo.png"> </picture>

The pluggable linting tool for natural language.

textlint is similar to ESLint, but it's for use with natural language.

<!-- textlint-disable -->

<!-- textlint-enable -->

Website

• Online demo
• Searchable documents
• Release blog

Visit https://textlint.org/.

Features

• No bundled rules.
• To use a rule, install a textlint rule via npm.
  • npm install textlint-rule-xxx.
  • See collection of textlint rules
• Markdown and plain text are supported by default. Support is available for HTML and other file formats via plugins.
• Supports the use of custom formatters and formatter bundles formatter(reporter)

Quick Tour

For a quick tour of textlint, checkout our Getting Started guide :squirrel:

Installation

You can install the textlint command using npm:

$ npm install textlint --save-dev

Requirements:

• Node.js 20+

If you're not sure what version of Node you're running, you can run node -v in your console to find out.

:warning: Warning:

• If you have installed textlint globally you must install each reference rule globally as well.
• If you have installed textlint locally you must install each rule locally as well.

We recommend installing textlint locally.

For Node.js beginners

If you've never used Node.js and npm, please see the following:

• Installing Node.js and updating npm | npm Documentation

Usage

textlint has no default rules!!

You can run textlint with .textlintrc.json config file.

# Install textlint and rules into local directory
npm install --save-dev textlint textlint-rule-no-todo

npx textlint --init command creates .textlintrc.json file from installed rules.

npx textlint --init

.textlintrc.json will be created like this:

{
    "rules": {
        "no-todo": true
    }
}

Lint files via textlint:

npx textlint ./README.md

textlint load .textlintrc.json from current directory and lint README.md.

CLI

Run npx textlint -h for information on how to use the CLI.

$ textlint [options] file.md [file|dir|glob*]

Options:
  -h, --help                  Show help.
  -c, --config path::String   Use configuration from this file or sharable config.
  --ignore-path path::String  Specify path to a file containing patterns that describes files to ignore. - default: .textlintignore
  --init                      Create the config file if not existed. - default: false
  --fix                       Automatically fix problems
  --dry-run                   Enable dry-run mode for --fix. Only show result, don't change the file.
  --debug                     Outputs debugging information
  --print-config              Print the config object to stdout
  -v, --version               Outputs the version number.

Using stdin:
  --stdin                     Lint text provided on <STDIN>. - default: false
  --stdin-filename String     Specify filename to process STDIN as

Output:
  -o, --output-file path::String  Enable report to be written to a file.
  -f, --format String         Use a specific output format.

                              Available formatter          : checkstyle, compact, github, jslint-xml, json, junit, pretty-error, stylish, table, tap, unix

                              Available formatter for --fix: compats, diff, fixed-result, json, stylish - default: stylish
  --no-color                  Disable color in piped output.
  --quiet                     Report errors only. - default: false

Specifying rules and plugins:
  --no-textlintrc             Disable .textlintrc
  --plugin [String]           Set plugin package name
  --rule [String]             Set rule package name
  --preset [String]           Set preset package name and load rules from preset package.
  --rulesdir [path::String]   Use additional rules from this directory

Caching:
  --cache                     Only check changed files - default: false
  --cache-location path::String  Path to the cache file or directory - default: .textlintcache

Experimental:
  --experimental              Enable experimental flag.Some feature use on experimental.
  --rules-base-directory path::String  Set module base directory. textlint load modules(rules/presets/plugins) from the base directory.
  --mcp                       Start textlint as the Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.

When running textlint, you can target files to lint using the glob patterns. Make sure that you enclose any glob parameter you pass in quotes.

$ npx textlint "docs/**"

For more details, see CLI documentation.

• Documentation: CLI

Example:

• :information_source: See examples/cli

.textlintrc

.textlintrc is config file that is loaded as JSON, YAML or JS via azu/rc-config-loader.

Running textlint with the following arguments

$ npx textlint --rule no-todo --rule very-nice-rule README.md

is equivalent to running textlint README.md in a directory with a .textlintrc.json containing the following json

{
  "rules": {
    "no-todo": true,
    "very-nice-rule": true
  }
}

You can also configure options for specific rules in your .textlintrc.json file.

{
  "rules": {
    "no-todo": false, // disable
    "very-nice-rule": {
        "key": "value"
    }
  }
}

For example here we pass the options ("key": "value") to very-nice-rule.

Options can be specified in your .textlintrc.json file as follows:

<!-- textlint-disable -->

{
  // Allow to comment in JSON
  "rules": {
    "<rule-name>": true | false | object
  }
}

<!-- textlint-enable -->

:information_source: for more details see

• docs/configuring
• examples/config-file

Plugin

A textlint plugin is a set of rules and rulesConfig or customize parser.

To enable plugin, put the "plugin-name" into .textlintrc.json.

<!-- textlint-disable -->

// `.textlintrc.json`
{
    "plugins": [
        "plugin-name"
    ],
    // overwrite-plugins rules config
    // <plugin>/<rule>
    "rules": {
        "plugin-name/rule-name" : false
    }
}

<!-- textlint-enable -->

:information_source: See docs/plugin.md

Supported file formats

textlint supports Markdown and plain text by default.

Install Processor Plugin and add new file format support.

For example, if you want to lint HTML, use textlint-plugin-html as a plugin.

npm install textlint-plugin-html --save-dev

Add "html" to .textlintrc.json

{
    "plugins": [
        "html"
    ]
}

Run textlint on .html files:

textlint index.html

• Example: examples/html-plugin
• Documentation: docs/plugin.md

Optional supported file types:

• HTML: textlint-plugin-html
• reStructuredText: textlint-plugin-rst
  • Fork: shiguredo/textlint-plugin-rst
• AsciiDoc/Asciidoctor: textlint-plugin-asciidoc-loose
• Re:VIEW: textlint-plugin-review
• Org-mode: textlint-plugin-org

See Processor Plugin List for details.

Rules list :green_heart:

• Check it: A Collection of textlint rule · textlint/textlint Wiki

textlint has no built-in rules, but there are 100+ pluggable rules:

• textlint-rule-no-todo
• textlint-rule-max-number-of-lines
• textlint-rule-common-misspellings
• etc...

See A Collection of textlint rule · textlint/textlint Wiki for more details.

If you create a new rule, please add it to the wiki :)

Fixable

Some rules are fixable using the --fix command lin