Provided by: pydocstyle_6.3.0-3_all 
NAME
pydocstyle - pydocstyle Documentation
pydocstyle is a static analysis tool for checking compliance with Python docstring conventions.
pydocstyle supports most of PEP 257 out of the box, but it should not be considered a reference
implementation.
pydocstyle supports Python 3.7 through 3.11.
Although pydocstyle is tries to be compatible with Python 3.6, it is not tested.
1. Install
pip install pydocstyle
2. Run
$ pydocstyle test.py
test.py:18 in private nested class `meta`:
D101: Docstring missing
test.py:27 in public function `get_user`:
D300: Use """triple double quotes""" (found '''-quotes)
test:75 in public function `init_database`:
D201: No blank lines allowed before function docstring (found 1)
...
3. Fix your code :)
Contents:
USAGE
Installation
Use pip or easy_install:
pip install pydocstyle
Alternatively, you can use pydocstyle.py source file directly - it is self-contained.
Command Line Interface
Usage
Usage: pydocstyle [options] [<file|dir>...]
Options:
--version show program's version number and exit
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-e, --explain show explanation of each error
-s, --source show source for each error
-d, --debug print debug information
-v, --verbose print status information
--count print total number of errors to stdout
--config=<path> use given config file and disable config discovery
--match=<pattern> check only files that exactly match <pattern> regular
expression; default is --match='(?!test_).*\.py' which
matches files that don't start with 'test_' but end
with '.py'
--match-dir=<pattern>
search only dirs that exactly match <pattern> regular
expression; default is --match-dir='[^\.].*', which
matches all dirs that don't start with a dot
--ignore-decorators=<decorators>
ignore any functions or methods that are decorated by
a function with a name fitting the <decorators>
regular expression; default is --ignore-decorators=''
which does not ignore any decorated functions.
Note:
When using --match, --match-dir or --ignore-decorators consider
whether you should use a single quote (') or a double quote ("),
depending on your OS, Shell, etc.
Error Check Options:
Only one of --select, --ignore or --convention can be specified. If
none is specified, defaults to `--convention=pep257`. These three
options select the "basic list" of error codes to check. If you wish
to change that list (for example, if you selected a known convention
but wish to ignore a specific error from it or add a new one) you can
use `--add-[ignore/select]` in order to do so.
--select=<codes> choose the basic list of checked errors by specifying
which errors to check for (with a list of comma-
separated error codes or prefixes). for example:
--select=D101,D2
--ignore=<codes> choose the basic list of checked errors by specifying
which errors to ignore out of all of the available
error codes (with a list of comma-separated error
codes or prefixes). for example: --ignore=D101,D2
--convention=<name>
choose the basic list of checked errors by specifying
an existing convention. Possible conventions: pep257,
numpy, google.
--add-select=<codes>
add extra error codes to check to the basic list of
errors previously set by --select, --ignore or
--convention.
--add-ignore=<codes>
ignore extra error codes by removing them from the
basic list previously set by --select, --ignore or
--convention.
NOTE:
When using any of the --select, --ignore, --add-select, or --add-ignore command line flags, it is
possible to pass a prefix for an error code. It will be expanded so that any code beginning with that
prefix will match. For example, running the command pydocstyle --ignore=D4 will ignore all docstring
content issues as their error codes beginning with "D4" (i.e. D400, D401, D402, D403, and D404).
Return Code
┌───┬───────────────────────────────────┐
│ 0 │ Success - no violations │
├───┼───────────────────────────────────┤
│ 1 │ Some code violations were found │
├───┼───────────────────────────────────┤
│ 2 │ Illegal usage - see error message │
└───┴───────────────────────────────────┘
Configuration Files
pydocstyle supports ini-like and toml configuration files. In order for pydocstyle to use a
configuration file automatically, it must be named one of the following options.
• setup.cfg
• tox.ini
• .pydocstyle
• .pydocstyle.ini
• .pydocstylerc
• .pydocstylerc.ini
• pyproject.toml
When searching for a configuration file, pydocstyle looks for one of the file specified above in that
exact order. ini-like configuration files must have a [pydocstyle] section while toml configuration files
must have a [tool.pydocstyle] section. If a configuration file was not found, pydocstyle keeps looking
for one up the directory tree until one is found or uses the default configuration.
NOTE:
toml configuration file support is only enabled if the toml python package is installed. You can
ensure that this is the case by installing the pydocstyle[toml] optional dependency.
NOTE:
For backwards compatibility purposes, pydocstyle supports configuration files named .pep257, as well
as section header [pep257]. However, these are considered deprecated and support will be removed in
the next major version.
Available Options
Not all configuration options are available in the configuration files. Available options are:
• convention
• select
• ignore
• add_select
• add_ignore
• match
• match_dir
• ignore_decorators
• property_decorators
• ignore_self_only_init
See the Usage section for more information.
Inheritance
By default, when finding a configuration file, pydocstyle tries to inherit the parent directory's
configuration and merge them to the local ones.
The merge process is as follows:
• If one of select, ignore or convention was specified in the child configuration - Ignores the parent
configuration and set the new error codes to check. Otherwise, simply copies the parent checked error
codes.
• If add-ignore or add-select were specified, adds or removes the specified error codes from the checked
error codes list.
• If match or match-dir were specified - use them. Otherwise, use the parent's.
In order to disable this (useful for configuration files located in your repo's root), simply add
inherit=false to your configuration file.
NOTE:
If any of select, ignore or convention were specified in the CLI, the configuration files will take no
part in choosing which error codes will be checked. match and match-dir will still take effect.
Example
[pydocstyle]
inherit = false
ignore = D100,D203,D405
match = .*\.py
In-file configuration
pydocstyle supports inline commenting to skip specific checks on specific functions or methods. The
supported comments that can be added are:
1. "# noqa" skips all checks.
2. "# noqa: D102,D203" can be used to skip specific checks. Note that this is compatible with skips from
flake8, e.g. # noqa: D102,E501,D203.
For example, this will skip the check for a period at the end of a function docstring:
>>> def bad_function(): # noqa: D400
... """Omit a period in the docstring as an exception"""
... pass
Usage with the pre-commit git hooks framework
pydocstyle can be included as a hook for pre-commit. The easiest way to get started is to add this
configuration to your .pre-commit-config.yaml:
- repo: https://github.com/pycqa/pydocstyle
rev: 0.0.0 # pick a git hash / tag to point to
hooks:
- id: pydocstyle
See the pre-commit docs for how to customize this configuration.
Checked-in python files will be passed as positional arguments so no need to use --match=*.py. You can
also use command line arguments instead of configuration files to achieve the same effect with less
files.
- id: pydocstyle
args:
- --ignore=D100,D203,D405
# or multiline
- |-
--select=
D101,
D2
ERROR CODES
Grouping
┌──────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Missing Docstrings │ │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D100 │ Missing docstring in public module │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D101 │ Missing docstring in public class │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D102 │ Missing docstring in public method │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D103 │ Missing docstring in public function │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D104 │ Missing docstring in public package │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D105 │ Missing docstring in magic method │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D106 │ Missing docstring in public nested │
│ │ class │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D107 │ Missing docstring in __init__ │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Whitespace Issues │ │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D200 │ One-line docstring should fit on one │
│ │ line with quotes │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D201 │ No blank lines allowed before │
│ │ function docstring │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D202 │ No blank lines allowed after function │
│ │ docstring │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D203 │ 1 blank line required before class │
│ │ docstring │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D204 │ 1 blank line required after class │
│ │ docstring │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D205 │ 1 blank line required between summary │
│ │ line and description │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D206 │ Docstring should be indented with │
│ │ spaces, not tabs │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D207 │ Docstring is under-indented │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D208 │ Docstring is over-indented │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D209 │ Multi-line docstring closing quotes │
│ │ should be on a separate line │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D210 │ No whitespaces allowed surrounding │
│ │ docstring text │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D211 │ No blank lines allowed before class │
│ │ docstring │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D212 │ Multi-line docstring summary should │
│ │ start at the first line │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D213 │ Multi-line docstring summary should │
│ │ start at the second line │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D214 │ Section is over-indented │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D215 │ Section underline is over-indented │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Quotes Issues │ │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D300 │ Use """triple double quotes""" │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D301 │ Use r""" if any backslashes in a │
│ │ docstring │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D302 │ Deprecated: Use u""" for Unicode │
│ │ docstrings │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Docstring Content Issues │ │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D400 │ First line should end with a period │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D401 │ First line should be in imperative │
│ │ mood │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D401 │ First line should be in imperative │
│ │ mood; try rephrasing │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D402 │ First line should not be the │
│ │ function's "signature" │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D403 │ First word of the first line should │
│ │ be properly capitalized │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D404 │ First word of the docstring should │
│ │ not be This │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D405 │ Section name should be properly │
│ │ capitalized │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D406 │ Section name should end with a │
│ │ newline │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D407 │ Missing dashed underline after │
│ │ section │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D408 │ Section underline should be in the │
│ │ line following the section's name │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D409 │ Section underline should match the │
│ │ length of its name │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D410 │ Missing blank line after section │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D411 │ Missing blank line before section │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D412 │ No blank lines allowed between a │
│ │ section header and its content │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D413 │ Missing blank line after last section │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D414 │ Section has no content │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D415 │ First line should end with a period, │
│ │ question mark, or exclamation point │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D416 │ Section name should end with a colon │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D417 │ Missing argument descriptions in the │
│ │ docstring │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D418 │ Function/ Method decorated with │
│ │ @overload shouldn't contain a │
│ │ docstring │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ D419 │ Docstring is empty │
└──────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
Default conventions
Not all error codes are checked for by default. There are three conventions that may be used by
pydocstyle: pep257, numpy and google.
The pep257 convention (specified in PEP257), which is enabled by default in pydocstyle, checks for all of
the above errors except for D203, D212, D213, D214, D215, D404, D405, D406, D407, D408, D409, D410, D411,
D413, D415, D416 and D417.
The numpy convention added in v2.0.0 supports the numpydoc docstring standard. This checks all of the
errors except for D107, D203, D212, D213, D402, D413, D415, D416, and D417.
The google convention added in v4.0.0 supports the Google Python Style Guide. This checks for all the
errors except D203, D204, D213, D215, D400, D401, D404, D406, D407, D408, D409 and D413.
These conventions may be specified using --convention=<name> when running pydocstyle from the command
line or by specifying the convention in a configuration file. See the Usage section for more details.
NOTE:
It makes no sense to check the same docstring for both numpy and google conventions. Therefore, if we
successfully detect that a docstring is in the numpy style, we don't check it for google.
The reason numpy style takes precedence over google is that the heuristics of detecting it are better,
and we don't want to enforce users to provide external hints to pydocstyle in order to let it know
which style docstrings are written in.
Publicity
The D1xx group of errors deals with missing docstring in public constructs: modules, classes, methods,
etc. It is important to note how publicity is determined and what its effects are.
How publicity is determined
Publicity for all constructs is determined as follows: a construct is considered public if -
1. Its immediate parent is public and
2. Its name does not start with a single or double underscore.
a. Note, names that start and end with a double underscore are public (e.g. __init__.py).
A construct's immediate parent is the construct that contains it. For example, a method's parent is a
class object. A class' parent is usually a module, but might also be a function, method, etc. A module
can either have no parent, or it can have a parent that is a package.
In order for a construct to be considered public, its immediate parent must also be public. Since this
definition is recursive, it means that all of its parents need to be public. The corollary is that if a
construct is considered private, then all of its descendants are also considered private. For example, a
class called _Foo is considered private. A method bar in _Foo is also considered private since its parent
is a private class, even though its name does not begin with a single underscore.
Note, a module's parent is recursively checked upward until we reach a directory in sys.path to avoid
considering the complete filepath of a module. For example, consider the module /_foo/bar/baz.py. If
PYTHONPATH is set to /, then baz.py is private. If PYTHONPATH is set to /_foo/, then baz.py is public.
Modules are parsed to look if __all__ is defined. If so, only those top level constructs are considered
public. The parser looks for __all__ defined as a literal list or tuple. As the parser doesn't execute
the module, any mutation of __all__ will not be considered.
How publicity affects error reports
The immediate effect of a construct being determined as private is that no D1xx errors will be reported
for it (or its children, as the previous section explains). A private method, for instance, will not
generate a D102 error, even if it has no docstring.
However, it is important to note that while docstring are optional for private construct, they are still
required to adhere to your style guide. So if a private module _foo.py does not have a docstring, it will
not generate a D100 error, but if it does have a docstring, that docstring might generate other errors.
pydocstyle is a rename and continuation of pep257, a project created by Vladimir Keleshev.
Maintained by Amir Rachum and Sambhav Kothari.
AUTHOR
Amir Rachum
COPYRIGHT
2020, Amir Rachum, Sambhav Kothari
0.0.0 2025-08-16 PYDOCSTYLE(1)