File Discovery

claudelint automatically discovers project-level and plugin-level Claude Code configuration files using predefined glob patterns. Global user configurations (~/.claude/) are out of scope.

Discovery respects .claudelintignore, .gitignore patterns, and always excludes node_modules/ and .git/.

File Type Reference

File Type	Locations	Validator	Recursive
CLAUDE.md	CLAUDE.md, .claude/CLAUDE.md, CLAUDE.local.md	claude-md	Yes (**/)
Rules	.claude/rules/**/*.md	claude-md	Yes
Skills	.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md, skills/<name>/SKILL.md	skills	Yes (**/) for .claude/
Agents	.claude/agents/<name>.md, agents/<name>.md	agents	No
Output Styles	.claude/output-styles/<name>/*.md, output-styles/<name>/*.md	output-styles	No
Settings	.claude/settings.json, .claude/settings.local.json	settings	No
Hooks	hooks/hooks.json (plugin, auto-loaded)	hooks	No
MCP	.mcp.json	mcp	No
LSP	.claude/lsp.json, .lsp.json	lsp	No
Plugin	plugin.json, .claude-plugin/plugin.json	plugin	No
Commands	.claude/commands/**/*, commands/**/*	commands	Yes

Recursive patterns (**/) find files in nested directories, supporting monorepo layouts where packages have their own .claude/ directories.

Monorepo Support

claudelint supports monorepo-style projects where multiple packages each have their own Claude Code configuration. All CLAUDE.md and CLAUDE.local.md files are discovered recursively, and skills inside .claude/skills/ are discovered within nested packages.

For workspace detection, config inheritance, and per-package validation, see Monorepo Support.

Plugin File Discovery

When building a Claude Code plugin, files use a different directory structure at the plugin root:

my-plugin/
  plugin.json                       # Plugin manifest
  skills/
    my-skill/SKILL.md               # Plugin skill
  agents/
    my-agent.md                     # Plugin agent
  hooks/
    hooks.json                      # Plugin hooks
  output-styles/
    concise/style.md                # Plugin output style
  commands/
    deploy.md                       # Plugin command

claudelint detects both the standard .claude/ project structure and the plugin root structure. See Plugin Manifest: Auto-discovery for how Claude Code loads plugin config files.

Ignoring Files

.claudelintignore

Create a .claudelintignore file in your project root using .gitignore syntax:

# Ignore build artifacts
dist/
build/

# Ignore a specific CLAUDE.md
packages/legacy/CLAUDE.md

# Ignore all files in a directory
experiments/**

Syntax rules:

• # for comments
• * matches any characters except /
• ** matches any characters including /
• Trailing / matches directories
• Blank lines are ignored

Default ignores (always applied): node_modules/**, .git/**, dist/**, build/**.

You can also add patterns in your config file with the ignorePatterns field:

{
  "ignorePatterns": ["**/*.generated.ts", ".cache/", "coverage/"]
}

.gitignore

Patterns in .gitignore are also respected automatically. Files matched by .gitignore will not be discovered.