Linting Rules

Clean diagrams aren’t accidental. They’re enforced.

tlDiagram’s linting system checks every diagram for architectural anti-patterns. Run with tld plan, tld validate, or tld check. Three strictness levels. Configurable per rule.

These are heuristic checks designed to catch common issues that lead to messy, unreadable diagrams. They’re not hard rules and are constantly evolving.

Configuring

Set the level globally or per-workspace:

.tld/.tld.yaml

validation:
  level: 2

Override at the command line:

tld plan --strictness 3
tld validate --strictness 1

Disabling specific rules

Some rules don’t make sense for every project. Disable them:

validation:
  level: 2
  allow_low_insight: true    # "Low Insight Ratio" off
  allow_generic_labels: true # "Generic Labels" off

Or per-repository (in multi-repo setups):

validation:
  level: 2
repositories:
  backend:
    validation:
      allow_low_insight: true

How warnings work

Linting warnings are advisory. They don’t block tld apply. But they appear in:

• tld plan output
• tld validate output
• tld check output

A warning means “this might be a problem.” It’s your call whether to address it or acknowledge it.