Auto-Detection

lintent automatically finds and runs linters based on your existing configuration files.

How Detection Works

When you run lintent run, it scans your project root for known config files:

Config File	Linter	Command
`pyproject.toml` with `[tool.ruff]`	ruff	`ruff check --output-format json`
`ruff.toml`	ruff	`ruff check --output-format json`
`pyrightconfig.json`	pyright	`pyright --outputjson`
`pyproject.toml` with `[tool.pyright]`	pyright	`pyright --outputjson`
`eslint.config.js`	eslint	`eslint --format json`
`.eslintrc.*`	eslint	`eslint --format json`
`package.json` with eslint dep	eslint	`eslint --format json`
`tsconfig.json`	typescript	`tsc --noEmit --pretty false`

Zero Configuration Required

If you have a Python project with pyproject.toml:

[tool.ruff]
line-length = 88
select = ["E", "F", "I"]

Just run:

lintent run

lintent will: 1. Find pyproject.toml 2. Detect [tool.ruff] section 3. Run ruff check --output-format json 4. Parse and enrich the output

Detection Priority

If multiple config files exist for the same linter, lintent uses the first found:

Dedicated config file (ruff.toml, pyrightconfig.json)
pyproject.toml section
Package manager detection (package.json dependencies)

Checking What's Detected

Run lintent to see detected linters:

lintent run --pretty

{
  "linters": {
    "detected": ["ruff", "pyright"],
    "results": [
      { "name": "ruff", "status": "success", "violations_count": 5 },
      { "name": "pyright", "status": "not_found", "error": "..." }
    ]
  }
}

detected: Linters found from config files
results: What happened when running them

Overriding Detection

For monorepos or custom setups, override in lintent.yaml:

linters:
  ruff:
    paths: ["./backend/src"]  # Only lint backend

  eslint:
    config: "./frontend/.eslintrc.js"
    paths: ["./frontend/src"]

  pyright:
    enabled: false  # Disable even if config exists

rules:
  # ... semantic rules

Override Options

Option	Description
`enabled`	`true`/`false` - Force enable or disable
`config`	Path to linter's config file
`paths`	Array of paths to lint

When Detection Fails

If a linter config exists but the linter isn't installed:

{
  "name": "ruff",
  "status": "not_found",
  "error": "'ruff' is not installed. Install it with: pip install ruff"
}

lintent continues with other linters - one failure doesn't stop the run.

Supported Linters

Currently Supported

Language	Linters
Python	ruff, pyright
JavaScript/TypeScript	eslint, tsc

Coming Soon

We're actively working on support for:

Language	Linter	Status
Rust	clippy	Planned
Go	golangci-lint	Planned
Java	checkstyle	Planned
C/C++	clang-tidy	Planned
Ruby	rubocop	Planned

Want to help? Check the Developer Guide for how to add new linter support.

Adding New Linters

New linters can be added by implementing a parser module. The process:

Create a parser for the linter's output
Add detection logic for config files
Register the parser in the runner

See DEVGUIDE.md for detailed instructions.