dir_exists

Directory counterpart of file_exists. Every match must correspond to a real directory in the walked tree.

Optional root_only: true (like file_exists) requires the match to be a directory directly at the repository root, not nested. Optional git_tracked_only: true further requires that the directory contain at least one tracked file. A tree with a docs/ checked out from a stale clone where every file was later removed via git rm would fail under this stricter check. If Git cannot be run or the lint root is not a Git repository, the rule reports a resource_read analysis failure. See The walker and .gitignore for the full semantics.

When to use it: for the directories a repository's tooling or contributors rely on being there: a docs/ tree the site build reads, .github/workflows/ for CI, tests/ next to the sources. Listing several paths accepts any one of them, so paths: ["doc", "docs"] passes with either name.

One match is enough: a glob such as packages/*/src passes as soon as one package has a src/; it fails only when nothing matches at all. To require a src/ in every package, iterate with for_each_dir and nest a dir_exists per directory.

With fix: {dir_create: {}}, paths must name one directory in normal form, such as docs/adr: no glob, no . or .., and no leading, trailing or doubled /. The rule matches paths against the walked tree, which names the directory docs/adr, so docs/ or ./docs would never pass, and the configuration fails to load instead.

Options

Option	Type	Required	Default	Description
git_tracked_only	boolean		false	Restrict matches to directories that contain at least one git-tracked file. Repository unavailability is an analysis failure when enabled. Default false.
root_only	boolean		false	If true, only a directory directly at the repository root satisfies the rule; a nested match does not.

Plus the common paths, level, id, when, and fix fields. This kind does not support expect_matches; its empty-scope semantics are kind-specific. This table is generated from the JSON Schema; option types and defaults are authoritative.

Example

A repository missing its src directory

The rule fires on this repository:

• the repository✗

  ✗ error has-src

  expected a directory matching [src]

• Cargo.toml✓

Cargo.toml

[package]
name = "demo"

With this .alint.yml:

version: 1
rules:
  - id: has-src
    kind: dir_exists
    paths: "src"
    level: error

alint check reports:

--- Repository-level -----------------------------------------------------------
  x  error    has-src
              expected a directory matching [src]

Summary (1 violation):
  x 1 error
  0 passing * 1 failing

A repository with a src directory

This repository is compliant:

• Cargo.toml✓
• src/
• src/main.rs✓

Cargo.toml

[package]
name = "demo"

src/main.rs

fn main() {}

With this .alint.yml:

version: 1
rules:
  - id: has-src
    kind: dir_exists
    paths: "src"
    level: error

alint check reports:

v All 1 rule(s) passed.