Command Line Interface (CLI)

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

npx stylelint "**/*.css"

Use npx stylelint --help to print the CLI documentation.

Options

In addition to the standard options, the CLI accepts:

--allow-empty-input, --aei

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

--cache-location

Path to a file or directory for the cache location. More info about this option in standard options.

--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 about this option in standard options.

--color, --no-color

Force enabling/disabling of color.

--config-basedir

Absolute path to the directory that relative paths defining “extends” and “plugins” are relative to. Only necessary if these values are relative paths. More info about this option in standard options.

--config

Path to a JSON, YAML, or JS file that contains your configuration object. More info about this option in standard options.

--custom-syntax

Specify a custom syntax to use on your code. Use this option if you want to force a specific syntax that's not already built into stylelint. More info about this option in standard options.

--disable-default-ignores, --di

Disable the default ignores. stylelint will not automatically ignore the contents of node_modules. More info about this option in standard options.

--fix

Automatically fix, where possible, violations reported by rules. More info about this option in standard options.

--formatter, -f | --custom-formatter

Specify the formatter to format your results. More info about this option in standard options.

--ignore-disables, --id

Ignore styleline-disable (e.g. /* stylelint-disable block-no-empty */) comments. More info about this option in standard options.

--ignore-path, -i

A path to a file containing patterns describing files to ignore. The path can be absolute or relative to process.cwd(). By default, stylelint looks for .stylelintignore in process.cwd(). More info about this option in standard options.

--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 about this option in standard options.

--output-file, -o

Path of file to write a report. stylelint outputs the report to the specified filename in addition to the standard output.

--print-config

Print the configuration for the given path. stylelint outputs the configuration used for the file passed.

--quiet, -q

Only register violations for rules with an “error”-level severity (ignore “warning”-level).

--report-descriptionless-disables, --rdd

Produce a report of the stylelint-disable comments without a description. More info about this option in standard options.

--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 about this option in standard options.

--report-needless-disables, --rd

Produce a report to clean up your codebase, keeping only the stylelint-disable comments that serve a purpose. More info about this option in standard options.

--stdin-filename

A filename to assign the input. More info about this option in standard options.

--stdin

Accept stdin input even if it is empty.

--syntax, -s

Specify a syntax. More info about this option in standard options.

--version, -v

Show the currently installed version of stylelint.

Usage examples

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

Be sure to 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" --customSyntax path/to/my-custom-syntax.js

Example I - print on success

Ensure output on successful runs:

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

Exit codes

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

  • 1 - something unknown went wrong
  • 2 - there was at least one rule violation or CLI flag error
  • 78 - there was some problem with the configuration file