NAME

       markdownlint - Markdown lint tool

SYNOPSIS

       mdl [ options ] [FILE.md|DIR ...]

DESCRIPTION

       markdownlint  checks an individual markdown file, or a directory of markdown files against a set of rules
       for syntax consistency.  In its report back to the CLI, the Ruby based implementation reports the line(s)
       with an issue identified and how to improve it.

OPTIONS

       -c, --config FILE
              The configuration file to use

       -g, --git-recurse
              Only process files known to git when given a directory

       -i, --[no]-ignore-front-matter
              Ignore YAML front matter

       -j, --json
              JSON output

       -l, --list-rules
              Don't process any files, just list enabled rules

       -r, --rules RULE1,RULE2
              Only process these rules

       -u, --rulesets RULESET1,RULESET2
              Specify additional ruleset files to load

       -S, --sarif
              SARIF output

       -a, --[no]show-aliases
              Show rule aliases instead of rule ID when viewing rules

       -w, --[no]warnings
              Show kramdown warnings

       -d, --skip-default-ruleset
              Don't load the default markdownlint ruleset

       -s, --style STYLE
              Load the given style

       -t, --tags TAG1,TAG2
              Only process rules with these tags

       -v, --[no-]verbose
              Increase verbosity

       -h, --help
              Show this message

       -V, --version
              Show version

EXAMPLES

       Equally visit folders docs and example of the GitHub repository.

   use rules by a flag
       List the objectives of rules MD012, MD022, MD031 and MD032:

              mdl -r MD012,MD022,MD031,MD032 -l

       Scrutinize file example.md only by rules MD012, MD022, MD031 and MD032:

              mdl -r MD012,MD022,MD031,MD032 example.md

       Scrutinize file example.md by all rules available except MD033 and MD034:

              mdl -r ~MD033,~MD034 example.md

       List all rules associated to the tag indentation:

              mdl -t indentation -l

       Scrutinize file example.md by all rules without tag indentation:

              mdl -t ~indentation example.md

       By default, markdownlint reports sort the issues by their rule.   With  GNU  coreutils,  your  shell  may
       resort the output by the corresponding line number of the file:

              mdl example.md | sort -t ":" -k 2 -n

   use rules by a local style file
       Recurrent  (personalized)  check  criteria  can  be  saved  as a style file, for instance mystyle.rb. The
       snippet below illustrates the syntax available.  Instead of pairs  of  single  quotes,  pairs  of  double
       quotes may be used, too.

              all  # initiate with all rules implemented

              rule 'MD013', :line_length => 100, :ignore_code_blocks => true
              exclude_rule 'MD014'

              # tag :blockquote
              exclude_tag :indentation

       List the rules a local style file activates:

              mdl -s mystyle.rb -l

       A personalized local style then is used by

              mdl -s mystyle.rb example.md

       Local  flags  are  of  higher priority than a local style file.  Therefore, the next command removes rule
       MD013 from consideration, regardless of any definition about said rule in mystyle.rb:

              mdl -s mystyle.rb -r ~MD013 example.md

   use rules by a global style file
       To deploy a markdownlint style all across your computer, set up a style file (e.g., mystyle.rb).  Second,
       add a .mdlrc file to your home directory to indicate the location of said style file by

              style "#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/{your_markdown_rule_file_path}.rb"

       Subsequently, a call by

              mdl example.md

       then applies the global style set.  In similar logic as above, a local style file  overrules  definitions
       of a global style, i.e.

              mdl example.md -s local_style.rb

   use rules for a project with continuous integration
       The  setup  of  a  markdownlint  style  per project equally consists of two files.  As an example, define
       .exclude_example.rb with

              # First, include all rules:
              all
              # Then, exclude MD013 (long lines), with:
              exclude_rule 'MD013'

       as a style file, and a .mdlrc as indicator of its location with

              #The custom style file is referenced by .mdlrc as below
              style ".exclude_example.rb"

       at the current root.  Again, a call like

              mdl example.md

       then applies the rules defined.

AUTHOR

       Mark Harrison, Ciro Santilli, Making GitHub Delicious., Brandon High, Matt Jankowski, David Anson, Tobias
       Bengfort,  Loic  Nageleisen,  Will  Fleming,  Jean-Christophe  GAY,  sudodoki,  David  Rodríguez,   Garth
       Braithwaite,  garthdb,  Alexander  Köplinger,  Simon  Symeonidis,  psyomn,  Jakub Wilk, Eitan Adler, Phil
       Dibowitz, David Somers-Harris, copperwalls, John Trammell, Waylan Limberg, Ash,  Paul  B,  Andrew  Janke,
       Adam  Strickland,  Naomi  Reeves,  Olle  Jonsson, Lauritz Hilsøe, Roman Kolesnev, Alex Harvey, Tim Smith,
       tsuburin, Mikael Kjaer, Caleb  Buxton,  Mark  E.  Schill,  Waldir  Pimenta,  Jose  Angel  Pardillo  Vela,
       androidseb,  jtcarnes,  Gene  Gotimer,  Sami Ahmed Siddiqui, Karol Babioch, Eric Knibbe, Alexander Jaust,
       orviz, Lennart Jern, Benjamin Quorning, Ting Chen, Kai, adamroyjones, Bengt  Lüers,  JP  Hastings-Spital,
       nbehrnd,  iafelix,  ColemanTom, Levente Polyak, Gunes Bayir, Mathieu Rul, Markus Lehtonen, Matthias Thym,
       Benjamin Bannier, AJRepo.

LICENSE

       MIT

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs to and suggest improvements on the project page,
       https://github.com/markdownlint/markdownlint

VERSION

       This is about markdownlint version 0.15.0 (November 26, 2025).

                                                December 12, 2025                                MARKDOWNLINT(1)