Rules

alint ships 89 rule kinds across 13 families (several are short-name aliases for the same check, so the table below lists the distinct rules). Filter by name, category, or description, sort any column, and open a rule for its full reference. Each rule is one entry in your .alint.yml under rules:; browse a family’s overview from the sidebar.

All ExistenceContentStructured queryNamingText hygieneSecurity / Unicode sanityEncodingStructurePortable metadataUnix metadataGit hygieneCross-filePlugin (tier 1)

#	Rule	Category	Description
1	dir_absent	Existence	Directory counterpart of file_absent.
2	dir_exists	Existence	Directory counterpart of file_exists.
3	file_absent	Existence	No file matching paths may exist in the walked tree.
4	file_exists	Existence	Every glob match in paths must correspond to a real file.
5	file_content_forbidden	Content	File contents must NOT match a regex.
6	file_content_matches	Content	File contents must contain at least one match for a regex.
7	file_ends_with	Content	Byte-level prefix / suffix check.
8	file_footer	Content	Last lines lines of each file in scope must match a regex.
9	file_hash	Content	Content SHA-256 must equal the expected digest.
10	file_header	Content	The first N lines must match a regex (line-oriented).
11	file_is_ascii	Content	Every byte in the file must be < 0x80 (pure ASCII), except codepoints listed in allow:.
12	file_is_text	Content	Content is detected as text (magic bytes + UTF-8 validity check), fails on binary files matched by paths.
13	file_max_lines	Content	File must have at most max_lines lines, using the same accounting as file_min_lines.
14	file_max_size	Content	File must be at most max_bytes in size.
15	file_min_lines	Content	File must have at least min_lines lines (\n-terminated, with an unterminated trailing segment counting as one more, wc -l semantics).
16	file_min_size	Content	File must be at least min_bytes in size.
17	file_shebang	Content	First line of each file in scope must match the shebang regex.
18	file_starts_with	Content	Byte-level prefix / suffix check.
19	json_path_equals	Structured query	Query a structured document with a JSONPath expression and assert every match deep-equals the supplied value.
20	json_path_matches	Structured query	Same shape as the *_equals variants, but the asserted value is a **regex** matched against string values.
21	json_schema_passes	Structured query	Validate every JSON / YAML / TOML file in paths against a JSON Schema document.
22	toml_path_equals	Structured query	Query a structured document with a JSONPath expression and assert every match deep-equals the supplied value.
23	toml_path_matches	Structured query	Same shape as the *_equals variants, but the asserted value is a **regex** matched against string values.
24	xml_path_equals	Structured query	Query a structured document with a JSONPath expression and assert every match deep-equals the supplied value.
25	xml_path_matches	Structured query	Same shape as the *_equals variants, but the asserted value is a **regex** matched against string values.
26	yaml_path_equals	Structured query	Query a structured document with a JSONPath expression and assert every match deep-equals the supplied value.
27	yaml_path_matches	Structured query	Same shape as the *_equals variants, but the asserted value is a **regex** matched against string values.
28	filename_case	Naming	Basename (stem only or full) matches a case convention: snake, kebab, pascal, camel, screaming-snake, flat, lower, upper.
29	filename_regex	Naming	Basename matches a regex.
30	final_newline	Text hygiene	File must end with a single \n.
31	indent_style	Text hygiene	Every non-blank line indents with the configured style (tabs or spaces).
32	line_endings	Text hygiene	Every line ending matches target: lf or crlf.
33	line_max_width	Text hygiene	Cap line length in characters (not bytes, code points).
34	max_consecutive_blank_lines	Text hygiene	Cap runs of blank lines to max.
35	no_trailing_whitespace	Text hygiene	No line may end with space or tab.
36	no_bidi_controls	Security / Unicode sanity	Flag Trojan-Source bidi override characters (U+202A 202E, U+2066 2069).
37	no_merge_conflict_markers	Security / Unicode sanity	Flag <<<<<<<, =======, >>>>>>>, ||||||| markers at the start of a line, almost always left over from an unresolved merge.
38	no_zero_width_chars	Security / Unicode sanity	Flag body-internal zero-width characters (U+200B, U+200C, U+200D, and non-leading U+FEFF).
39	no_bom	Encoding	Flag a leading UTF-8 / UTF-16 LE/BE / UTF-32 LE/BE byte-order mark.
40	max_directory_depth	Structure	Tree depth from repo root may not exceed max_depth.
41	max_files_per_directory	Structure	Per-directory fanout may not exceed max_files.
42	no_empty_files	Structure	no_empty_files rule in alint''s structure family.
43	no_case_conflicts	Portable metadata	Flag paths that differ only by case (e.g.
44	no_illegal_windows_names	Portable metadata	Reject path components Windows can''t represent:.
45	executable_bit	Unix metadata	Assert every file in scope either has the +x bit set (require: true) or does not (require: false).
46	executable_has_shebang	Unix metadata	Every file with +x set must begin with #!
47	no_symlinks	Unix metadata	Flag tracked paths that are symbolic links.
48	shebang_has_executable	Unix metadata	Every file starting with #! must have +x set.
49	changeset_requires_path	Git hygiene	The <since>...HEAD diff must **add** (git status A) at least one path matching add_glob:, the "did you add a changelog entry?" gate.
50	commented_out_code	Git hygiene	Heuristic detector for blocks of commented-out source code (as opposed to prose comments, license headers, doc comments, or ASCII banners).
51	git_blame_age	Git hygiene	Fire on lines matching a regex whose git blame author-time is older than max_age_days.
52	git_commit_author_allowlist	Git hygiene	Assert every commit author in scope matches an allowed email and/or name pattern.
53	git_commit_gpg_signed	Git hygiene	Assert every commit in scope has a verifying signature (git verify-commit exits 0).
54	git_commit_message	Git hygiene	Validate commit-message shape via regex, max-subject-length, or required-body.
55	git_commit_no_fixup	Git hygiene	Fail on residual fixup! / squash! / amend! commits left in scope, the ones git commit --fixup / --squash produce, meant to be collapsed by.
56	git_commit_signed_off	Git hygiene	Assert every commit in scope carries a DCO (Developer Certificate of Origin) Signed-off-by: trailer, required by every CNCF / Linux.
57	git_commit_subject_matches	Git hygiene	Each commit''s subject line (the first line of its message) must match the matches: regex, the subject-grammar member of the commit family.
58	git_no_denied_paths	Git hygiene	Fire when any tracked file matches a configured glob denylist.
59	markdown_paths_resolve	Git hygiene	Validate that backticked workspace paths in markdown files resolve to real files or directories in the repo.
60	no_submodules	Git hygiene	Flag the presence of .gitmodules at the repo root, always, regardless of paths.
61	pair_changed_together	Git hygiene	If the <since>...HEAD diff changes any path matching if_changed:, at least one path matching then_changed: must change in the same range,.
62	command_idempotent	Cross-file	Run a user-declared formatter/checker in its **--check (idempotence) mode** once: exit 0 ⇒ the tree is formatter-clean (silent); non-zero ⇒.
63	cross_file	Cross-file	A source must hold a relation to one or more targets (or, for resolves, the filesystem).
64	dir_contains	Cross-file	Every directory matching select: must contain files matching every glob in require:.
65	dir_only_contains	Cross-file	Every direct-child file of a directory matching select: must match at least one glob in allow:.
66	every_matching_has	Cross-file	For every file or directory matching select:, every nested rule under require: must be satisfied.
67	file_graph	Cross-file	Assemble the repo''s *file → file* reference graph and assert a global structural property the 1-level cross-file kinds can''t express.
68	for_each_dir	Cross-file	For every matching directory / file, evaluate a nested require: block with the entry as context.
69	for_each_file	Cross-file	For every matching directory / file, evaluate a nested require: block with the entry as context.
70	for_each_match	Cross-file	For each line matching select (a regex), the line must satisfy the nested require: predicates.
71	generated_file_fresh	Cross-file	A committed artefact must equal what a declared command generator produces, in one of two modes (exactly one of file / outputs).
72	import_gate	Cross-file	Forbid imports whose **extracted target** matches a forbid regex, within the paths scope, an architectural import firewall (staging-layer.
73	ordered_block	Cross-file	The lines between a start / end marker pair must stay sorted (and, with unique: true, free of duplicates) under comparator (lexical /.
74	pair	Cross-file	For every file matching primary, a file matching the partner template must exist.
75	pair_hash	Cross-file	The algorithm digest (sha256 default / sha512) of every file matching source must appear in the single target file, either as an embedded.
76	registry_paths_resolve	Cross-file	A manifest file enumerates path entries; each must resolve to an on-disk artefact.
77	unique_by	Cross-file	No two files matching select may share the value of key (a path template; tokens {path}/{dir}/{basename}/{stem}/{ext}/{parent_name}).
78	command	Plugin (tier 1)	Shell out to an external CLI per matched file.