id	title
rule	Creating Rules

textlint's AST(Abstract Syntax Tree) is defined at the page.

txtnode.md
- If you want to know AST of a text, use Online Parsing Demo

Each rule are represented by an object with some properties. The properties are equivalent to AST node types from TxtNode.

The basic source code format for a rule is:

/**
 * @param {RuleContext} context
 */
export default function (context) {
    // rule object
    return {
        [context.Syntax.Document](node) {},

        [context.Syntax.Paragraph](node) {},

        [context.Syntax.Str](node) {
            const text = context.getSource(node);
            if (/found wrong use-case/.test(text)) {
                // report error
                context.report(node, new context.RuleError("Found wrong"));
            }
        },

        [context.Syntax.Break](node) {}
    };
}

If your rule wants to know when an Str node is found in the AST, then add a method called context.Syntax.Str, such as:

// ES2015+
export default function (context) {
    const { Syntax } = context;
    return {
        [Syntax.Str](node) {
            // this method is called
        }
    };
}
// or ES5
module.exports = function (context) {
    const exports = {};
    exports[context.Syntax.Str] = function (node) {
        // this method is called
    };
    return exports;
};

By default, the method matching a node name is called during the traversal when the node is first encountered(This is called Enter), on the way down the AST.

You can also specify to visit the node on the other side of the traversal, as it comes back up the tree(This is called Leave), but adding Exit to the end of the node type, such as:

export default function (context) {
    return {
        // Str:exit
        [context.Syntax.StrExit](node) {
            // this method is called
        }
    };
}

Note: textlint@11.1.1+ support *Exit constant value like Syntax.DocumentExit. In textlint@11.1.0<=, you had to write [Syntax.Document + ":exit"].

visualize-txt-traverse help you better understand this traversing.

AST explorer for textlint help you better understand TxtAST.

Related information:

azu/visualize-txt-traverse
packages/@textlint/ast-traverse
estools/estraverse

RuleContext API

RuleContext object has following property:

Syntax.*
- This is const values of TxtNode type.
- e.g.) context.Syntax.Str
- packages/@textlint/ast-node-types/src/index.ts
report(<node>, <ruleError>): void
- This method is a method that reports a message from one of the rules.
- e.g.) context.report(node, new context.RuleError("found rule error"));
getSource(<node>): string
- This method is a method gets the source code for the given node.
- e.g.) context.getSource(node); // => "text"
getFilePath(): string | undefined
- This method return file path that is linting target.
- e.g.) context.getFilePath(): // => /path/to/file.md or undefined
getConfigBaseDir(): string | undefined
- New in 9.0.0
- Available @textlint/get-config-base-dir polyfill for backward compatibility
- This method return config base directory path that is the place of .textlintrc
- e.g.) /path/to/dir/.textlintrc
- getConfigBaseDir() return "/path/to/dir/".
fixer
- This is creator object of fix command.
- See How to create Fixable Rule? for more details
locator
- New in 12.2.0
- This utility provide range methods for padding property to RuleError
- See RuleError for more details

RuleError

RuleError is an Error object for reporting. Use it with report function.

report(node, new RuleError(<message>))
- report new error
- textlint show the <mesage> against node's range.
report(node, new RuleError(<message>, { padding }))
- report new error with padding.
- textlint show the <mesage> against node's range + padding.
- You can control correct error range by padding property of RuleError

Example: report the Str node that is typo.

This is typo.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
      |
  Found a typo.

export default function (context) {
    const { Syntax, report, RuleError, getSource } = context;
    return {
        [Syntax.Str](node) {
            // get source code of this `node`
            const text = getSource(node);
            if (/typo/.test(text)) {
                // report error
                report(node, new RuleError("Found a typo"));
            }
        }
    };
}

Example: report typo string that is typo using padding

This is typo.
        ^^^^
          |
        Found a typo.

export default function (context) {
    const { Syntax, report, RuleError, getSource, locator } = context;
    return {
        [Syntax.Str](node) {
            // get source code of this `node`
            const text = getSource(node);
            const match = text.match(/typo/);
            if (match) {
                // report error with padding
                // node's start + padding's range
                // As a result, report the error that is [node.range[0] + typo.index, node.range[1] + typo.index + type.length]
                report(
                    node,
                    new RuleError("Found a typo", {
                        padding: locator.range([match.index, match.index + match[0].length])
                    })
                );
            }
        }
    };
}

The context.locator object has the following methods:

locator.at(index) - return padding value that is relative index from node's start index.
- The index value is 0-based value
- This method is alias to locator.range([index, index + 1])
locator.range([startIndex, endIndex]) - return padding value that is relative range from node's start index
- Each index value is 0-based value
locator.loc({ start: { line, column }, end: { line, column }) - return padding value that is relative location from node's start loc
- 📝 This line and column is relative value. It is not absolute value. So, These are 0-based value.

📝 context.locator object in introduced in v12.2.0.

export type TextlintRulePaddingLocator = {
    /**
     * at's index is 0-based value.
     * It is alias to `range([index, index + 1])`
     * @param index relative index from node's start position
     */
    at(index: number): TextlintRuleErrorPaddingLocation;
    /**
     * range's index is 0-based value
     * @param range relative range from node's start position
     */
    range(range: readonly [startIndex: number, endIndex: number]): TextlintRuleErrorPaddingLocation;
    /**
     * line is relative padding value from node's start position
     * column is relative padding value from node's start position
     * @param location relative location from node's start position
     */
    loc(location: {
        start: {
            line: number;
            column: number;
        };
        end: {
            line: number;
            column: number;
        };
    }): TextlintRuleErrorPaddingLocation;
};

Examples

// locator.at
report(node, new RuleError(message, {
  padding: locator.at(11)
}));
// locator.range
report(node, new RuleError(message, {
  padding: locator.range([5, 10])
}));
// locator.loc
report(node, new RuleError(message, {
  padding: locator.loc({
      start: {
          line: 1,
          column: 1
      },
      end: {
          line: 2,
          column: 2
      }
  })
}));

📝 padding option and locator object are introduced in textlint v12.2.0+. You can declare your dependency on textlint in package.json using the peerDependencies and peerDependenciesMeta fields.

  "peerDependencies": {
    "textlint": ">= 12.2.0"
  },
  "peerDependenciesMeta": {
    "textlint": {
      "optional": true
    }
  }

Deprecated: { line, column } and { index } properties

{ line, column } and { index } properties are deprecated. Instead of these, textlint v12.2.0 introduce padding property and locator object.

Deprecated way:

// report without padding
const error = new RuleError("message");
// OR
// report with location-based padding
const paddingLine = 1;
const paddingColumn = 1;
const errorWithPadding = new RuleError("message", {
    line: paddingLine, // padding line number from node.loc.start.line. default: 0
    column: paddingColumn // padding column number from node.loc.start.column. default: 0
});
// OR
// report with index-based padding
const paddingIndex = 1;
const errorWithPaddingIndex = new RuleError("message", {
    index: paddingIndex // padding index value from `node.range[0]`. default: 0
});

Current way:

// No padding information
// It means, this error point out the whole node
const error = new RuleError("message");
// OR
const errorWithPadding = new RuleError("message", {
    padding: locator.loc({
        start: {
            line: 1, // padding line number from node.loc.start.line. default: 0
            column: 1 // padding column number from node.loc.start.column. default: 0
        },
        end: {
            line: 1, // padding line number from node.loc.start.line. default: 0
            column: 2 // padding column number from node.loc.start.column. default: 0
        }
    })
});
// OR
const paddingIndex = 1;
const errorWithPaddingIndex = new RuleError("message", {
    // padding [startIndex, endIndex] from node's start index.
    padding: locator.range([1, 2])
});

⚠️ Caution ⚠️

index could not used with line and column.
- It means that to use { line, column } or { index }
index, line, column is a relative value from the node which is reported.

Report error

You will use mainly method is context.report(), which publishes an error (defined in each rules).

For example:

export default function (context) {
    const { Syntax, report, RuleError } = context;
    return {
        [Syntax.Str](node) {
            // get source code of this `node`
            const text = context.getSource(node);
            if (/found wrong use-case/.test(text)) {
                // report error
                report(node, new RuleError("Found wrong"));
            }
        }
    };
}

How to write async task in the rule

Return Promise object in the node function and the rule work asynchronously.

export default function (context) {
    const { Syntax } = context;
    return {
        [Syntax.Str](node) {
            // textlint wait for resolved the promise.
            return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
                // async task
            });
        }
    };
}

Example: creating `no-todo` rules.

This example aim to create no-todo rule that throw error if the text includes - [ ] or todo:.

Setup for creating rule

textlint prepare useful generator tool that is create-textlint-rule command.

textlint/create-textlint-rule: Create textlint rule project with no configuration.
textlint/textlint-scripts: textlint npm-run-scripts CLI help to create textlint rule.

You can setup textlint rule using npx that is included in npm:

# Create `textlint-rule-no-todo` project and setup!
npx create-textlint-rule no-todo

Or use npm install command:

# Install `create-textlint-rule` to global
npm install --global create-textlint-rule 
# Create `textlint-rule-no-todo` project and setup!
create-textlint-rule no-todo

This generated project contains textlint-scripts that provide build script and test script.

📝 If you want to write TypeScript, Pass --typescript flag to create-textlint-rule. For more details, see create-textlint-rule's README.

Build

Builds source codes for publish to the lib/ folder. You can write ES2015+ source codes in src/ folder. The source codes in src/ built by following command.

npm run build

Tests

Run test code in test/ folder. Test textlint rule by textlint-tester.

npm test

Let's create `no-todo` rule

File Name: no-todo.js

/**
 * @param {RuleContext} context
 */
export default function (context) {
    const { Syntax, getSource, RuleError, report, locator } = context;
    return {
        /*
            # Header
            Todo: quick fix this.
            ^^^^^
            Hit!
        */
        [Syntax.Str](node) {
            // get text from node
            const text = getSource(node);
            // does text contain "todo:"?
            const match = text.match(/todo:/i);
            if (match) {
                report(
                    node,
                    new RuleError(`Found TODO: '${text}'`, {
                        padding: locator.range([match.index, match.index + text.length])
                    })
                );
            }
        },
        /*
            # Header
            - [ ] Todo
              ^^^
              Hit!
        */
        [Syntax.ListItem](node) {
            const text = context.getSource(node);
            const match = text.match(/\[\s+\]\s/i);
            if (match) {
                report(
                    node,
                    new context.RuleError(`Found TODO: '${text}'`, {
                        padding: locator.range([match.index, match.index + text.length])
                    })
                );
            }
        }
    };
}

Example text:

# Header

this is Str.

Todo: quick fix this.

- list 1
- [ ] todo

Run Lint!

$ npm run build
$ textlint --rulesdir lib/ README.md -f pretty-error

Advanced rules

When linting following text with above no-todo rule, a result was error.

[todo:image](http://example.com)

Case: ignore child node of `Link`, `Image` or `BlockQuote`.

You want to ignore this case, and write the following:

/**
 * Get parents of node.
 * The parent nodes are returned in order from the closest parent to the outer ones.
 * @param node
 * @returns {Array}
 */
function getParents(node) {
    const result = [];
    // child node has `parent` property.
    let parent = node.parent;
    while (parent != null) {
        result.push(parent);
        parent = parent.parent;
    }
    return result;
}
/**
 * Return true if `node` is wrapped any one of `types`.
 * @param {TxtNode} node is target node
 * @param {string[]} types are wrapped target node
 * @returns {boolean|*}
 */
function isNodeWrapped(node, types) {
    const parents = getParents(node);
    const parentsTypes = parents.map(function (parent) {
        return parent.type;
    });
    return types.some(function (type) {
        return parentsTypes.some(function (parentType) {
            return parentType === type;
        });
    });
}
export default function (context) {
    const { Syntax, getSource, RuleError, report, locator } = context;
    return {
        /*
        Todo: quick fix this.
    */
        [Syntax.Str](node) {
            // Ignore the node if the node is child of some Node types
            if (isNodeWrapped(node, [Syntax.Link, Syntax.Image, Syntax.BlockQuote])) {
                return;
            }
            // get text from node
            const text = getSource(node);
            // Does the text contain "todo:"?
            const matches = text.matchAll(/todo:/gi);
            for (const match of matches) {
                const index = match.index ?? 0;
                const length = match[0].length;
                report(
                    node,
                    new RuleError(`Found TODO: '${text}'`, {
                        padding: locator.range([index, index + length])
                    })
                );
            }
        },
        /*
        - [ ] Todo
    */
        [Syntax.ListItem](node) {
            const text = context.getSource(node);
            // Does the ListItem's text starts with `- [ ]`
            const match = text.match(/^-\s\[\s+]\s/i);
            if (match && match.index !== undefined) {
                report(
                    node,
                    new context.RuleError(`Found TODO: '${text}'`, {
                        padding: locator.range([match.index, match.index + match[0].length])
                    })
                );
            }
        }
    };
}

As a result, linting following text with modified rule, a result was no error.

[todo:image](http://example.com)

The created rule is textlint-rule-no-todo.
These helper functions like getParents are implemented in textlint/textlint-rule-helper.

How to test the rule?

You can already run test by npm test command. (This test scripts is setup by create-textlint-rule)

This test script use textlint-tester.

Manually Installation

textlint-tester depend on Mocha.

npm install -D textlint-tester mocha

Usage of textlint-tester

Write tests by using textlint-tester
Run tests by Mocha

test/textlint-rule-no-todo-test.js:

import TextLintTester from "textlint-tester";
const tester = new TextLintTester();
// rule
import rule from "../src/no-todo";
// ruleName, rule, { valid, invalid }
tester.run("no-todo", rule, {
    valid: [
        // no match
        "text",
        // partial match
        "TODOS:",
        // ignore node's type
        "[TODO: this is todo](http://example.com)",
        "![TODO: this is todo](http://example.com/img)",
        "> TODO: this is todo"
    ],
    invalid: [
        // range
        {
            text: "- [ ] string",
            //     ^^^^^^
            errors: [
                {
                    message: "Found TODO: '- [ ] string'",
                    range: [0, 6]
                }
            ]
        },
        // loc
        {
            text: "- [ ] string",
            //     ^^^^^^
            errors: [
                {
                    message: "Found TODO: '- [ ] string'",
                    loc: {
                        start: {
                            line: 1,
                            column: 1
                        },
                        end: {
                            line: 1,
                            column: 7
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
});

Run the tests:

$ npm test
# or
$ npx mocha test/

ℹ️ Please see textlint-rule-no-todo for details.

Rule options

.textlintrc is the config file for textlint.

For example, very-nice-rule's option is { "key": "value" } in .textlintrc.json

{
  "rules": {
    "very-nice-rule": {
      "key": "value"
    }
  }
}

very-nice-rule.js rule get the options defined by the config file.

export default function (context, options) {
    console.log(options);
    /*
        {
          "key": "value"
        }
    */
}

The options value is {} (empty object) by default.

For example, very-nice-rule's option is true (enable the rule) in .textlintrc.json

{
  "rules": {
    "very-nice-rule": true
  }
}

very-nice-rule.js rule get {} (empty object) as options.

export default function (context, options) {
    console.log(options); // {}
}

History: This behavior is changed in textlint@11.

#535

Advanced example

If you want to know more details, please see other example.

Paragraph rule

Publishing

If you want to publish your textlint rule, see following documents.

Package Naming Conventions

textlint rule package naming should have textlint-rule- prefix.

textlint-rule-<name>
@scope/textlint-rule-<name>
- textlint supports Scoped packages

Example: textlint-rule-no-todo

textlint user use it following:

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

Example: @scope/textlint-rule-awesome

textlint user use it following:

{
    "rules": {
        "@scope/awesome": true
    }
}

Rule Naming Conventions

The rule naming conventions for textlint are simple:

If your rule is disallowing something, prefix it with no-.
- For example, no-todo disallowing TODO: and no-exclamation-question-mark for disallowing ! and ?.
If your rule is enforcing the inclusion of something, use a short name without a special prefix.
- If the rule for english, please uf textlint-rule-en- prefix.
Keep your rule names as short as possible, use abbreviations where appropriate.
Use dashes(-) between words.

npm information:

package.json | npm Documentation
results for textlint

Example rules:

Collection of textlint rule · textlint/textlint Wiki

Keywords

You should add textlintrule to npm's keywords

{
  "name": "textlint-rule-no-todo",
  "description": "Your custom rules description",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "homepage": "https://github.com/textlint/textlint-custom-rules/",
  "keywords": [
    "textlintrule"
  ]
}

FAQ: Publishing

Q. `textlint @ x.y.z` has new feature. My rule package require it

A. You should add textlint >= x.y.z to peerDependencies in package.json

The recommended way to declare a dependency for future-proof compatibility is with the ">=" range syntax, using the lowest required eslint version. For example:

  "peerDependencies": {
    "textlint": ">= 5.5.0"
  }

See example: textlint-rule-no-todo/package.json

Q. `textlint` does major update. Do my rule package major update?

A. If the update contains a breaking change on your rule, should update as major. If the update does not contain a breaking change on your rule, update as minor.

Performance

Rule Performance

textlint has a built-in method to track performance of individual rules. Setting the TIMING=1 environment variable will trigger the display. It show their individual running time and relative performance impact as a percentage of total rule processing time.

$ TIMING=1 textlint README.md
Rule                            | Time (ms) | Relative
:-------------------------------|----------:|--------:
spellcheck-tech-word            |   124.277 |    70.7%
prh                             |    18.419 |    10.5%
no-mix-dearu-desumasu           |    13.965 |     7.9%
max-ten                         |    13.246 |     7.5%
no-start-duplicated-conjunction |     5.911 |     3.4%

Implementation Notes 📝

textlint ignore duplicated message/rules by default.

If already the rule with config is loaded, Don't load this(same rule with same config).
- Proposal: don't load duplicated rule(ruleConfig) · Issue #219 · textlint/textlint
Duplicated error message is ignored by default
- Duplicated error messages is that have same range and same message.
- Proposal: duplicated messages is ignored by default · Issue #209 · textlint/textlint

Community Notes

Japanese

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

rule.md

rule.md

RuleContext API

RuleError

⚠️ Caution ⚠️

Report error

How to write async task in the rule

Example: creating `no-todo` rules.

Setup for creating rule

Build

Tests

Let's create `no-todo` rule

Advanced rules

Case: ignore child node of `Link`, `Image` or `BlockQuote`.

How to test the rule?

Manually Installation

Usage of textlint-tester

Rule options

Advanced example

Publishing

Package Naming Conventions

Rule Naming Conventions

Keywords

FAQ: Publishing

Q. `textlint @ x.y.z` has new feature. My rule package require it

Q. `textlint` does major update. Do my rule package major update?

Performance

Rule Performance

Implementation Notes 📝

Community Notes

Files

rule.md

Latest commit

History

rule.md

File metadata and controls

RuleContext API

RuleError

⚠️ Caution ⚠️

Report error

How to write async task in the rule

Example: creating no-todo rules.

Setup for creating rule

Build

Tests

Let's create no-todo rule

Advanced rules

Case: ignore child node of Link, Image or BlockQuote.

How to test the rule?

Manually Installation

Usage of textlint-tester

Rule options

Advanced example

Publishing

Package Naming Conventions

Rule Naming Conventions

Keywords

FAQ: Publishing

Q. textlint @ x.y.z has new feature. My rule package require it

Q. textlint does major update. Do my rule package major update?

Performance

Rule Performance

Implementation Notes 📝

Community Notes

Example: creating `no-todo` rules.

Let's create `no-todo` rule

Case: ignore child node of `Link`, `Image` or `BlockQuote`.

Q. `textlint @ x.y.z` has new feature. My rule package require it

Q. `textlint` does major update. Do my rule package major update?