Checks and Validation

Glotfile validates your catalog two ways: live in the UI as you edit, and via the lint / check commands for CI. Both look for the same kinds of problem.

Lint rules

glotfile lint runs these rules. Each has a default severity you can override in config.lint.rules.

Rule id	Default	Catches
`empty-source`	error	A key whose source value is empty.
`empty-translation`	error	A target value that’s missing or whitespace-only.
`placeholder-mismatch`	error	Translation placeholders differ from the source.
`icu-mismatch`	error	One side is an ICU plural/select and the other isn’t.
`glossary-violation`	error	A do-not-translate term is altered, or a forced Glossary translation is missing.
`max-length`	warn	A value longer than the key’s max length.
`identical-to-source`	warn	A translation identical to the source string.
`whitespace`	warn	Leading/trailing whitespace that differs from the source.
`spelling`	warn	A word the locale’s dictionary doesn’t recognise.

glotfile check adds one more, by re-exporting and comparing to disk:

Rule id	Default	Catches
`output-stale`	error	An exported file is missing or out of date — run `glotfile export`.

Configuring rules — `config.lint`

Editable in Settings → Quality checks, or by hand:

"lint": {
  "rules": { "identical-to-source": "off", "max-length": "error" },
  "ignore": ["legal.*", "debug.*"],
  "spelling": { "locales": { "pt-BR": "pt" } }
}

Field	Meaning
`rules`	Override a rule’s severity: `"error"`, `"warn"`, or `"off"`.
`ignore`	Globs of keys to skip entirely.
`spelling.locales`	Map a locale to a different dictionary id (e.g. use the `pt` dictionary for `pt-BR`).

Rule configuration applies everywhere at once: the live editor checks, the Analytics release gate, and glotfile lint/check. The spelling rule accepts Glossary terms and the custom dictionary (config.spelling.customWords) automatically.

Note: Spelling needs a dictionary — the spelling rule only runs for locales that have a dictionary available. Locales without one are skipped with a notice.

Dismissing a single finding

Sometimes a warning is just wrong for one string — “Logo” really is “Logo” in French. Dismiss the finding from Analytics (or the key’s detail panel) and it’s suppressed for that key + locale until the source text changes, at which point it resurfaces automatically. Suppressions are stored on the key in the state file, so they’re shared with your team and reviewable in diffs.

glotfile lint --accept [--rule <list>] [--locale <list>] bulk-suppresses the current warnings — useful when adopting glotfile on an existing project.
glotfile lint --include-suppressed shows suppressed findings (marked); Analytics has a matching “Suppressed (n)” drawer with per-finding restore.
Errors are never bulk-accepted; fix those instead.

Severities and exit codes

error → fails lint/check (exit 1).
warn → reported; fails only if over --max-warnings.
off → not run.

See lint and check for --format (text / json / sarif), --rule, --locale, and --max-warnings, and Continuous Integration for wiring it up.

Live UI checks

The Editor continuously surfaces issues — missing values, placeholder mismatches, length and glossary violations, and spelling — so you fix them as you work. The needs-attention filter shows every key with an open issue.

lint and check · Continuous Integration · Placeholders and ICU · Configuration Reference