CLI

seolint [inputs] [options]

Inputs

seolint takes files, folders, or URLs. One run takes paths or URLs, but not both.

seolint public                    # every .html file in a folder
seolint public/index.html         # one file
seolint public docs/index.html    # many inputs
seolint https://example.com/      # fetch and lint a URL
curl -s https://example.com | seolint -i   # HTML from stdin

A folder is a site root. seolint lints every .html file inside it, except error pages such as 404.html, and also runs the site checks, for robots.txt, sitemap.xml, and broken links.
A file gets the checks for one page, but not the site checks.
A URL is fetched and linted. Its origin is the host, unless you set one.

Without inputs, seolint uses the inputs of your config file.

Options

Option	Description
`-H`, `--host`	The site URL, such as `https://example.com`.
`-f`, `--format`	The output format: `pretty` (default), `json`, or `ci`.
`-j`, `--json`	The same as `--format json`.
`-q`, `--quiet`	Print nothing. Only set the exit code.
`-i`, `--input`	Read HTML from stdin.
`--workers`	How many threads lint pages. See Workers.
`--rules`	List every rule, with its setting and description.
`--no-color`	Print without colors. seolint also respects `NO_COLOR` and `FORCE_COLOR`.
`-v`, `--version`	Print the version.
`-h`, `--help`	Print the help.

Options override the same fields of your config file.

Output formats

`pretty`

The default. It prints each page with its problems, sorted by position, to stderr:

 FAIL  public/about/index.html
         ✘  A "meta[name=description]" must exist       description.exists
    6:2  ⚠  Must not have less than 10 characters       title.content.length
  21:52  ⚠  Must describe the target, not "click here"  link.text.vague

 FAIL  Reported 1 error and 2 warnings!

`json`

It prints the report as JSON to stdout. Each input maps to a list of messages:

{
  "public/about/index.html": [
    {
      "rule": "title.content.length",
      "severity": "warn",
      "message": "Must not have less than 10 characters",
      "line": 6,
      "col": 2,
      "docs": "https://seolint.io/docs/rules/title.content.length/"
    }
  ]
}

A message has no line and col when the problem has no element, such as a missing tag.

`ci`

It prints GitHub Actions workflow commands to stdout. GitHub, Gitea, and Forgejo Actions show each one as an annotation on its file and line:

::warning file=public/about/index.html,line=6,col=2,title=title.content.length::Must not have less than 10 characters
::warning file=public/about/index.html,line=21,col=52,title=link.text.vague::Must describe the target, not "click here"
seolint: 1 error and 2 warnings

In GitHub Actions, the ci format also writes every problem as a table to the job summary, because GitHub shows only the first 10 errors and 10 warnings of a step as annotations. See an example run, and CI for a complete workflow.

Exit codes

Code	When
`0`	No errors. There can be warnings.
`1`	At least one error, or seolint could not run, such as for a missing input.

The exit code is the same in every format.

List the rules

--rules prints every rule with its setting from your config, its default options, and its description. Add --json for a JSON list:

seolint --rules
seolint --rules --json