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Command Line Interface (CLI)

You can use Stylelint on the command line. For example:

stylelint "**/*.css"

You should include quotation marks around file globs.

If you are using npm scripts, you'll need to escape the quotes:

{
  "scripts": {
    "lint": "stylelint \"**/*.css\""
  }
}

Use stylelint --help to print the CLI documentation.

Options​

The CLI accepts:

--allow-empty-input, --aei​

The process exits without throwing an error when glob pattern matches no files. More info.

--cache-location​

Path to a file or directory for the cache location. More info.

--cache-strategy​

Strategy for the cache to use for detecting changed files. Can be either "metadata" or "content". More info.

--cache​

Store the results of processed files so that Stylelint only operates on the changed ones. By default, the cache is stored in ./.stylelintcache in process.cwd(). More info.

--color, --no-color​

Force enabling/disabling of color.

--config-basedir​

Absolute path to the directory that relative paths defining "extends", "plugins", and "customSyntax" are relative to. Only necessary if these values are relative paths. More info.

--config, -c​

Path to a JSON, YAML, or JS file that contains your configuration object. More info.

--custom-syntax​

Specify a custom syntax to use on your code. More info.

--disable-default-ignores, --di​

Disable the default ignores. Stylelint will not automatically ignore the contents of node_modules. More info.

--fix​

Automatically fix, where possible, problems reported by rules. More info.

--compute-edit-info, --cei​

Compute edit information for fixable problems. More info.

--formatter, -f | --custom-formatter​

Specify the formatter to format your results. More info.

--globbyOptions, --go​

Options in JSON format passed to globby. More info.

--ignore-disables, --id​

Ignore stylelint-disable (e.g. /* stylelint-disable block-no-empty */) comments. More info.

--ignore-path, -i​

Path to a file containing patterns that describe files to ignore. The path can be absolute or relative to process.cwd(). You can repeat the option to provide multiple paths. By default, Stylelint looks for .stylelintignore in process.cwd(). More info.

--ignore-pattern, --ip​

Pattern of files to ignore (in addition to those in .stylelintignore).

--max-warnings, --mw​

Set a limit to the number of warnings accepted. More info.

--output-file, -o​

Path of file to write a report. Stylelint outputs the report to the specified filename in addition to process.stderr.

--print-config​

Print the configuration for the given input path. Globs are unsupported.

--quiet, -q​

Only register problems for rules with an "error"-level severity (ignore "warning"-level). More info.

--quiet-deprecation-warnings​

Ignore deprecation warnings. More info.

--report-descriptionless-disables, --rdd​

Produce a report of the stylelint-disable comments without a description. More info.

--report-invalid-scope-disables, --risd​

Produce a report of the stylelint-disable comments that used for rules that don't exist within the configuration object. More info.

--report-needless-disables, --rd​

Produce a report to clean up your codebase, keeping only the stylelint-disable comments that serve a purpose. More info.

--report-unscoped-disables, --rud​

Produce a report of the configuration comments that are not scoped to one or more rules. More info.

--stdin-filename​

A filename to assign the input. More info.

--stdin​

Accept stdin input even if it is empty.

--suppress​

Suppress problems that have the severity of error and record them in a file. More info.

--suppress-location​

Path to a file or directory for the suppressions location. More info.

--validate, --no-validate​

Force enable/disable the validation of the rules' options. More info.

--version, -v​

Show the currently installed version of Stylelint.

Profile Rule Performance​

The TIMING environment variable allows you to profile the performance of individual rules.

When TIMING is set to all or a positive integer (n >= 1), it displays the execution time of the longest-running rules upon linting completion. This includes both rule creation and execution time, as well as each rule's relative impact as a percentage of the total rule processing time.

$ TIMING=10 stylelint "**/*.css"
╔════╤════════════════════════════════════════════════════╤═══════════╤══════════╗
║  # │ Rule                                               │ Time (ms) │ Relative ║
╟────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────┼──────────╢
║  1 │ no-descending-specificity                          │     1.154 │    19.3% ║
╟────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────┼──────────╢
║  2 │ no-duplicate-selectors                             │     0.357 │     6.0% ║
╟────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────┼──────────╢
║  3 │ length-zero-no-unit                                │     0.300 │     5.0% ║
╟────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────┼──────────╢
║  4 │ selector-type-no-unknown                           │     0.265 │     4.4% ║
╟────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────┼──────────╢
║  5 │ alpha-value-notation                               │     0.251 │     4.2% ║
╟────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────┼──────────╢
║  6 │ declaration-block-no-redundant-longhand-properties │     0.217 │     3.6% ║
╟────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────┼──────────╢
║  7 │ selector-class-pattern                             │     0.187 │     3.1% ║
╟────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────┼──────────╢
║  8 │ value-keyword-case                                 │     0.151 │     2.5% ║
╟────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────┼──────────╢
║  9 │ declaration-block-no-duplicate-custom-properties   │     0.146 │     2.4% ║
╟────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────┼──────────╢
║ 10 │ declaration-empty-line-before                      │     0.140 │     2.3% ║
╚════╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════╧═══════════╧══════════╝

You can adjust the number of results by setting a different value for TIMING.

For example:

  • TIMING=30 will show the top 30 rules.
  • TIMING=all will display all rules.

Usage examples​

The CLI expects input as either a file glob or process.stdin. It outputs formatted results into process.stderr.

You should include quotation marks around file globs.

Example A - recursive​

Recursively linting all .css files in the foo directory:

stylelint "foo/**/*.css"

Example B - multiple file extensions​

Linting all .css, .scss, and .sass files:

stylelint "**/*.{css,scss,sass}"

Example C - stdin​

Linting stdin:

echo "a { color: pink; }" | stylelint

Example D - negation​

Linting all .css files except those within docker subfolders, using negation in the input glob:

stylelint "**/*.css" "!**/docker/**"

Example E - caching​

Caching processed .scss files foo directory:

stylelint "foo/**/*.scss" --cache --cache-location "/Users/user/.stylelintcache/"

Example F - writing a report​

Linting all .css files in the foo directory, then writing the output to myTestReport.txt:

stylelint "foo/*.css" --output-file myTestReport.txt

Example G - specifying a config​

Using bar/mySpecialConfig.json as config to lint all .css files in the foo directory and any of its subdirectories:

stylelint "foo/**/*.css" --config bar/mySpecialConfig.json

Example H - using a custom syntax​

Recursively linting all .css files in the foo directory using a custom syntax:

stylelint "foo/**/*.css" --custom-syntax path/to/my-custom-syntax.js

Example I - print on success​

Ensure output on successful runs:

stylelint -f verbose "foo/**/*.css"

Example J - print a config​

Print a configuration used for the given input file:

stylelint test.css --print-config

Example K - piping a report to another command​

Use a report as input for another command through piping:

stylelint -f json "*.css" 2>&1 | jq '[.[] | .warnings | length] | add'

Exit codes​

The CLI can exit the process with the following exit codes:

  • 1 - fatal error
  • 2 - lint problem
  • 64 - invalid CLI usage
  • 78 - invalid configuration file