Getting Started

claudelint is a linter for Claude Code projects. It validates CLAUDE.md files, skills, settings, hooks, MCP servers, plugins, agents, and more — surfacing misconfigurations and standardizing your setup before issues cause silent failures.

Set Up with Claude

Let Claude walk you through setup. Copy this prompt into a Claude Code session:

Set up claudelint for this project to validate my Claude Code files.
Follow the setup guide at https://claudelint.com/setup-guide.md

Claude will read the guide, create a task list, and walk you through each step — install location, rule preset, hooks, validation, and plugin installation.

Manual Setup

If you prefer to install and configure claudelint yourself, follow these steps.

1. Install

npm install --save-dev claude-code-lint

yarn add --dev claude-code-lint

pnpm add --save-dev claude-code-lint

Or install globally:

npm install -g claude-code-lint

yarn global add claude-code-lint

pnpm add -g claude-code-lint

2. Configure

claudelint init

This creates .claudelintrc.json with the recommended preset and .claudelintignore for excluding files. Add .claudelint-cache/ to your .gitignore if it isn't there already -- claudelint uses this directory for caching and it should not be committed. See Configuration for presets, per-rule overrides, and advanced options.

3. Validate

claudelint

That's it. claudelint scans your project and reports any issues. See the CLI Reference for all available commands and flags.

4. Optional: Claude Code Plugin

Install the claudelint plugin for slash commands like /validate-all and /optimize-cc-md directly inside Claude Code sessions. See the Plugin Guide for installation.

5. Optional: SessionStart Hook

Automatically validate your project every time a Claude Code session begins:

claudelint init --hooks

See Hooks for details and alternative hook types.

What Gets Validated

claudelint checks 10 different aspects of your Claude Code project:

• CLAUDE.md - File size, imports, paths, content structure
• Skills - Names, descriptions, security, versioning
• Settings - Permissions, environment variables
• Hooks - Event types, script references
• MCP Servers - Transport types, URLs, environment variables
• Plugins - Manifest structure, component references
• Agents - Names, descriptions, tools, models
• LSP - Transport config, language IDs, extensions
• Output Styles - Name validation
• Commands - Migration checks

Next Steps

• Configuration - Presets, per-rule overrides, ignore patterns
• Rules Overview - Browse all 114 rules
• CI/CD Integration - GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, SARIF output
• Auto-fix - Automatically fix common issues
• Custom Rules - Write your own validation rules
• Why claudelint? - What problems it solves and how