# glinter
A linter for the [Gleam](https://gleam.run) programming language. It parses Gleam source files into ASTs using [glance](https://github.com/gleam-community/glance) and checks them against a configurable set of rules.
## Installation
```sh
gleam add --dev glinter
```
## Usage
```sh
# Lint the src/ directory (default)
gleam run -m glinter
# Lint specific files or directories
gleam run -m glinter src/myapp/ test/
# JSON output
gleam run -m glinter --format json
# Show stats (files, lines, timing)
gleam run -m glinter --stats
# Lint a different project (resolves gleam.toml and paths relative to project dir)
gleam run -m glinter --project /path/to/my/project
```
The exit code is `1` if any issues are found, `0` otherwise.
### Multi-Package Projects
For monorepos with multiple Gleam packages, add glinter as a dev dependency to one package (e.g. server) and lint each package separately using `--project`:
```sh
# From any directory, lint each package
gleam run -m glinter --project server
gleam run -m glinter --project client
gleam run -m glinter --project shared
```
Each package uses its own `gleam.toml` for configuration. You can wrap this in a script to lint all packages at once:
```sh
#!/bin/sh
# bin/lint
set -e
for pkg in server client shared; do
echo "Linting $pkg..."
gleam run -m glinter --project "$pkg"
done
```
## Rules
### Code Quality
- **avoid_panic** (error): flags uses of `panic`
- **avoid_todo** (error): flags uses of `todo`
- **echo** (warning): flags uses of `echo` (debug output)
- **assert_ok_pattern** (warning): flags `let assert` assignments
- **unwrap_used** (warning): flags `result.unwrap`, `option.unwrap`, and lazy variants
- **todo_without_message** (warning): flags `todo` without a descriptive message
- **large_tuple** (warning): flags tuples with more than 3 elements (use a custom type instead)
### Type Annotations
- **missing_type_annotation** (warning): flags functions missing return type annotations or with untyped parameters
### Style
- **discarded_result** (warning): flags `let _ = expr` (discarded results)
- **short_variable_name** (warning): flags single-character variable names in let bindings
- **unnecessary_variable** (warning): flags `let x = expr; x` (assigned then immediately returned)
- **redundant_case** (warning): flags `case` expressions with a single branch and no guard
- **prefer_guard_clause** (warning): flags `case bool { True -> ... False -> ... }` patterns that could use `bool.guard`
### Complexity
- **deep_nesting** (warning): flags nesting deeper than 5 levels
- **function_complexity** (warning): flags functions with more than 10 branching nodes
- **module_complexity** (warning): flags modules with more than 50 total branching nodes
### Labels
- **label_possible** (warning): flags unlabeled parameters in functions with 2+ parameters
- **missing_labels** (warning): flags calls to same-module functions that omit defined labels
### Cross-Module
- **unused_exports** (warning): flags `pub` functions, constants, and types never referenced from another module. Test files count as consumers, `main` is excluded.
## Configuration
Configuration lives in your project's `gleam.toml` under the `[tools.glinter]` key:
```toml
[tools.glinter]
stats = true # show file count, line count, and timing after each run
[tools.glinter.rules]
avoid_panic = "error"
avoid_todo = "error"
echo = "warning"
assert_ok_pattern = "warning"
discarded_result = "warning"
short_variable_name = "warning"
unnecessary_variable = "warning"
redundant_case = "warning"
unwrap_used = "warning"
deep_nesting = "warning"
function_complexity = "warning"
module_complexity = "warning"
prefer_guard_clause = "warning"
missing_labels = "warning"
label_possible = "warning"
unused_exports = "warning"
missing_type_annotation = "warning"
large_tuple = "warning"
todo_without_message = "warning"
```
Each rule can be set to `"error"`, `"warning"`, or `"off"`.
### Ignoring Rules Per File
Suppress specific rules for files where they don't make sense:
```toml
[tools.glinter.ignore]
"src/my_complex_module.gleam" = ["deep_nesting", "function_complexity"]
```
## Output Formats
### Text (default)
```
src/app.gleam:12: [error] avoid_panic: Use of 'panic' is discouraged
src/app.gleam:25: [warning] echo: Use of 'echo' is discouraged
```
### JSON
```sh
gleam run -m glinter --format json
```
```json
{
"results": [
{
"rule": "avoid_panic",
"severity": "error",
"file": "src/app.gleam",
"line": 12,
"message": "Use of 'panic' is discouraged"
}
],
"summary": {
"total": 1,
"errors": 1,
"warnings": 0
}
}
```
When `--stats` is enabled, a `stats` object is included:
```json
{
"stats": {
"files": 23,
"lines": 2544,
"elapsed_ms": 45
}
}
```
## Roadmap
- **Stateful rule interface**: change the check callbacks to a fold-like interface so rules can accumulate state across AST nodes, support multiple passes, and early termination. The current stateless `fn(Node) -> List(LintResult)` interface works for pattern-matching rules but limits what's possible. See [elm-review](https://package.elm-lang.org/packages/jfmengels/elm-review/latest/) for a well-designed reference architecture.
- **FFI safety lint**: detect use of private Gleam data API internals in JS FFI files (e.g. accessing tuple elements by index or matching on internal constructor representations).
- **Dynamic SQL detection**: flag string concatenation used to build SQL queries, which risks SQL injection.
## Running Tests
```sh
gleam test
```
## License
MIT