--output

The --output option specifies the format that Vale will use to report its alerts. There are three built-in styles: “CLI” (the default), “line”, and “JSON”.

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:

vale --output='path/to/my/template.tmpl' somefile.md

The value of --output may be absolute, relative, or relative to StylesPath.

Template files have access to the following data structures:

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.

Template functions

NameArgument(s)Description
redstringReturns the given STRING with an ANSI-formatted red foreground color.
bluestringReturns the given STRING with an ANSI-formatted blue foreground color.
yellowstringReturns the given STRING with an ANSI-formatted yellow foreground color.
underlinestringReturns the given STRING with an ANSI-formatted underline.
newTableboolCreates a new tablewriter struct. newTable accepts one boolean value representing SetAutoWrapText.
addRow[]stringAppends the given row to a table.
renderTableTablePrints the table-formatted output to stdout.
jsonEscapestringEnsure 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.

{{- /* 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"}}.