Vale

Overview

Vale CLI is an open source, command-line tool that reports on writing style issues found in text files. It does not provide suggestions for fixing the issues.

Installing

To install Vale in macOS:

Enter brew install vale.

Create a configuration file named .vale.ini in your home directory containing settings like the following:

StylesPath = vale-styles
MinAlertLevel = suggestion
Packages = Microsoft, proselint, write-good

# Only process AsciiDoc, Markdown, and plain text files.
[*.{adoc,md,txt}]
BasedOnStyles = Vale, Microsoft, proselint, write-good
Microsoft.Contractions = off
Microsoft.HeadingAcronyms = off
Microsoft.HeadingPunctuation = off
Microsoft.Headings = off
Microsoft.Quotes = off

[*]
BasedOnStyles = Empty

Enter the command vale sync to download each of the packages listed in the config file.
Create the empty directory ~/vale-styles/Empty.
Set the environment variable VALE_CONFIG_PATH to point to the .vale.ini file. For example, add the following in .zshenv:
```
export VALE_CONFIG_PATH=$HOME/.vale.ini
```

Running

Open a terminal window.
cd to the directory of a file to check.
Enter the command vale {file-name}.

VS Code

Install the Vale VSCode extension from Chris Chinchilla. This causes VS Code to flag writing style issues.

In settings, set “Vale > Vale CLI: Config” to “/Users/{your-username}/.vale.ini”.