textlint reports errors and fails the docs job in CI

By Kaveh Alemi·Latchkey

textlint ran its configured rules over your Markdown or text and reported errors, exiting non-zero. Each line shows the rule id, so you can auto-fix, adjust severity, or add an exception.

What this error means

textlint prints a list ending in "N problems (N errors, M warnings)" with rule ids like no-dead-link or terminology, and the CI step fails.

/docs/guide.md
  10:5  error  Disallow to use "Github", use "GitHub" instead  terminology

1 problem (1 error, 0 warnings)

Common causes

A rule flags real prose issues

Rules such as terminology, write-good, or spellcheck-tech-word report style or spelling problems that fail the build.

Fixable rules were not auto-fixed

Many textlint rules support --fix; if CI only checks, fixable issues still fail instead of being corrected.

How to fix it

Auto-fix and commit, or check with --fix-dry-run

1. Run textlint --fix locally to correct fixable rules.
2. Commit the result.
3. In CI, run plain textlint to gate on what remains.

npx textlint --fix "docs/**/*.md"

Tune rule severity in .textlintrc

Lower a noisy rule to a warning or disable it so only meaningful errors gate CI.

{
  "rules": {
    "terminology": true,
    "write-good": { "severity": "warning" }
  }
}

How to prevent it

• Run textlint --fix in a pre-commit hook so fixable issues never reach CI.
• Keep .textlintrc committed so local and CI rule sets match.
• Scope rules to .md files and set severities intentionally.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

References

• GitHub Actions documentation