Configuration

Vale expects its configuration to be in a file named .vale.ini or _vale.ini.

Vale will will start looking for this file in the same directory as the file that’s being linted. If it can’t find one, it will search up to 6 levels up the directory tree. After 6 levels, it will look for a global configuration file in the OS equivalent of $HOME (see below).

If more than one configuration file is present, the closest one takes precedence.

The basic structure of a configuration file is as follows:

# Core settings
StylesPath = ci/vale/styles

# The minimum alert level to display (suggestion, warning, or error).
#
# CI builds will only fail on error-level alerts.
MinAlertLevel = warning

# Global settings (applied to every syntax)
[*]
# List of styles to load
BasedOnStyles = vale, MyCustomStyle
# Style.Rule = {YES, NO} to enable or disable a specific rule
vale.Editorializing = YES
# You can also change the level associated with a rule
vale.Hedging = error

# Syntax-specific settings
# These overwrite any conflicting global settings
[*.{md,txt}]
...

Vale also supports context-specific configuration in Markdown, HTML, and reStructuredText documents:

<!-- vale off -->

This is some text

more text here...

<!-- vale on -->

<!-- vale Style.Rule = NO -->

This is some text

<!-- vale Style.Rule = YES -->