Vale: Your style, our editor

By default, Vale includes support for three output styles: line, JSON, and CLI (the default). You can specify which style to use via the --output flag:

bash
$ vale --output=line README.md

In addition to the three provided output styles, Vale also supports custom output styles powered by Go’s text/template package.

To use a custom format, pass the path to a template file through the --output option:

bash
$ vale --output='template.tmpl' somefile.md

Where template.tmpl is a file that contains a valid Go template stored in the $StylesPath/config/templates directory.

Templating

Templates have access to the following data structures:

go
type ProcessedFile struct {
    Alerts []core.Alert
    Path   string
}

type Data struct {
    Files       []ProcessedFile
    LintedTotal int
}

Where core.Alert has the same information as Vale’s --output=JSON object.

Templates can also access the following functions:

Name	Argument(s)	Description
`red`	`string`	Returns the given `string` with an ANSI-formatted red foreground color.
`blue`	`string`	Returns the given `string` with an ANSI-formatted blue foreground color.
`yellow`	`string`	Returns the given `string` with an ANSI-formatted yellow foreground color.
`underline`	`string`	Returns the given `string` with an ANSI-formatted underline.
`newTable`	`bool`	Creates a new `tablewriter` struct. `newTable` accepts one boolean value representing `SetAutoWrapText`.
`addRow`	`[]string`	Appends the given row to a table.
`renderTable`	`Table`	Prints the table-formatted output to `stdout`.
`jsonEscape`	`string`	Ensure the given `STRING` is valid JSON.

See the Sprig Function Documentation for the full list.

Examples

The following example re-implements Vale’s default output style using a template.

go
{{- /* Keep track of our various counts */ -}}

{{- $e := 0 -}}
{{- $w := 0 -}}
{{- $s := 0 -}}
{{- $f := 0 -}}

{{- /* Range over the linted files */ -}}

{{- range .Files}}
{{$table := newTable true}}

{{- $f = add1 $f -}}
{{- .Path | underline | indent 1 -}}

{{- /* Range over the file's alerts */ -}}

{{- range .Alerts -}}

{{- $error := "" -}}
{{- if eq .Severity "error" -}}
    {{- $error = .Severity | red -}}
    {{- $e = add1 $e  -}}
{{- else if eq .Severity "warning" -}}
    {{- $error = .Severity | yellow -}}
    {{- $w = add1 $w -}}
{{- else -}}
    {{- $error = .Severity | blue -}}
    {{- $s = add1 $s -}}
{{- end}}

{{- $loc := printf "%d:%d" .Line (index .Span 0) -}}
{{- $row := list $loc $error .Message .Check | toStrings -}}

{{- $table = addRow $table $row -}}
{{end -}}

{{- $table = renderTable $table -}}
{{end}}
{{- $e}} {{"errors" | red}}, {{$w}} {{"warnings" | yellow}} and {{$s}} {{"suggestions" | blue}} in {{$f}} {{$f | int | plural "file" "files"}}.