Scan the repo for known antipatterns and propose rules that would catch them. Prints proposals to stdout for review — never edits the user's config. Pairs naturally with `alint init` for a smarter cold-start adoption flow
Usage: alint[EXE] suggest [OPTIONS] [PATH]
Arguments:
[PATH] Root of the repository to scan. Defaults to the current directory [default: .]
Options:
-c, --config <CONFIG> Path to a config file
-f, --format <FORMAT> Output format. `human` (default) is colorised for terminals; `yaml` is a paste-ready config snippet; `json` is a stable shape suitable for agent consumption [default: human] [possible values: human, yaml, json]
--confidence <LEVEL> Lower bound on signal strength for proposals. `low` is broadest (helpful when prospecting); `high` is strict (only ecosystem-marker hits and equivalents) [default: medium] [possible values: low, medium, high]
--include-bundled Include bundled-ruleset suggestions even if the existing `.alint.yml` already extends them
--no-gitignore Disable .gitignore handling (overrides config)
--explain Print one-line file-level evidence under each proposal so reviewers can decide quickly
--fail-on-warning Treat warnings as errors for exit-code purposes
--show-notes List informational notes (non-violation findings, e.g. entries a rule skipped rather than failed on) in full on stderr. By default only a one-line count is shown
--color <WHEN> When to emit ANSI color codes in human output. `auto` (the default) inspects TTY + `NO_COLOR` + `CLICOLOR_FORCE`. Only affects the `human` format; `json` / `sarif` / `github` / `markdown` / `junit` / `gitlab` / `agent` are always plain bytes [default: auto] [possible values: auto, always, never]
--ascii Force ASCII glyphs in human output (e.g. `x` instead of `✗`). Auto-enabled when `TERM=dumb`
--compact Compact one-line-per-violation human output, suitable for piping into editors / grep / `wc -l`. Format: `path:line:col: level: rule-id: message` (the `:line:col` is omitted for findings with no specific location)
--width <COLS> Override the human-output column width. Default: detected terminal width (TTY only) or 80. Useful for reproducible captures (asciinema/screen recordings) and for piping into fixed-width log viewers. Clamped to [40, 120]
--no-docs Suppress per-violation `docs:` URLs in human output. Useful for narrow terminals, screen recordings, and CI logs where long URLs disrupt visual alignment. URLs remain in JSON / SARIF / GitHub / markdown output regardless
--progress <WHEN> When to render progress on stderr for slow operations (currently `alint suggest`). `auto` (the default) renders when stderr is a TTY; `always` forces; `never` silences. Progress always lives on stderr — `--format` JSON output on stdout stays byte-clean [default: auto] [possible values: auto, always, never]
-q, --quiet Suppress progress and any stderr summary lines. Alias for `--progress=never` plus suppression of the "found N proposals in Ts" footer that `suggest` prints
--baseline <FILE> Suppress violations recorded in the given baseline file (see `alint baseline`), reporting only new ones. Pre-existing findings are grandfathered so `check` can gate a legacy repo on new violations only. A missing or unreadable baseline is an error (never a silent no-op). The path is resolved relative to the current directory (not the checked PATH); the `baseline:` config key, by contrast, resolves against the repo root
--strict-baseline With `--baseline`, fail (exit 1) when the baseline has stale entries (recorded findings that no longer fire — usually because they were fixed). Forces the committed baseline to stay exactly accurate. Off by default: fixing things never fails the build
--show-baselined With `--baseline`, list the suppressed (baselined) findings on stderr in full, rather than just a one-line count. Parallels `--show-notes`
--only <RULE_ID> Restrict the run to the named rule id(s) from the effective config (repeatable). Other rules are skipped entirely. An id that matches no loaded rule is an error, so typos fail loudly rather than silently linting nothing. Applies to `check` and `fix` (the `agent` format emits `fix --only <rule-id>`); rejected on any other subcommand. Global so the bare `alint --only <id>` lints the current directory like `alint check --only <id>` — to lint a different path, use the explicit form `alint check --only <id> <path>`
-h, --help Print help