staleless lint

staleless lint

npx staleless lint [path]

Runs the same rules the writer and docs_commit run, over a folder on disk.

Flags

pathpositional

The folder holding nav.yaml and pages/. Defaults to the current one. With the GitHub App this is usually docs.

--strictflag

Count warnings as failures.

--advisoryflag

Report everything and never fail.

--fixflag

Rewrite what has a mechanical repair, then report what is left.

--jsonflag

Machine-readable output, for a pull request comment.

No network, no token

This is a deliberate property, not an omission. The pull requests that most need checking come from forks, and a fork’s build has no secrets. A check that needed a credential would skip exactly where it matters.

What --fix repairs

• canonical Markdown form;
• a tab, step or card written the short way.

Everything else is reported. A tool that guessed at a dead link would be worse than one that names it.

In GitHub Actions

name: Documentation
on: pull_request

jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 24
      - run: npx staleless lint docs

Add --strict when your team is ready for warnings to block. Start without it: a check that fails on the first day for something cosmetic is a check somebody turns off.

The rules

All 28, with their severity, are on Lint rules.

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	Nothing to report.
1	Found problems.
2	Could not run. Usually no nav.yaml at the path you gave.