Linting and Quality¶

Automated linting catches style issues, spelling errors, and formatting problems before they reach readers. Quality tools maintain consistency across documentation.

Prose Linting¶

Vale¶

Customizable prose linter.

Features: - Style guide enforcement - Custom rules - CI/CD integration

Configuration:

# .vale.ini
StylesPath = styles
MinAlertLevel = warning

[*.md]
BasedOnStyles = Google, write-good

Write-Good¶

Catches common writing issues:

• Passive voice
• Weasel words
• Clichés

Markdown Linting¶

markdownlint¶

Enforces Markdown formatting:

# .markdownlint.yml
default: true
MD013: false  # Line length
MD033: false  # Inline HTML

remark-lint¶

Pluggable Markdown linter for Node.js projects.

Spell Checking¶

cSpell¶

Code-aware spell checker:

{
  "words": ["webhook", "microservice"],
  "ignoreWords": ["yaml", "json"]
}

Aspell/Hunspell¶

Traditional spell checkers for CI pipelines.

Link Checking¶

linkchecker¶

Validates all links in documentation:

linkchecker https://docs.example.com

markdown-link-check¶

Check links in Markdown files:

markdown-link-check README.md

CI Integration¶

Add quality checks to your pipeline:

# GitHub Actions example
name: Docs Quality

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Vale linting
        uses: errata-ai/vale-action@v2
      - name: Link check
        run: |
          npm install -g markdown-link-check
          find docs -name "*.md" -exec markdown-link-check {} \;

Summary¶

Quality tools ensure consistent documentation:

• Lint prose for style consistency
• Check Markdown formatting
• Validate spelling
• Verify links work
• Automate in CI/CD

Catching issues automatically improves overall documentation quality.