# Skills Lint Setup

> Use this skill to initialize and configure skills_lint in a Dart project. Covers adding skills_lint to pubspec.yaml dev_dependencies, creating root skills_lint.yaml, generating baseline ignore files for legacy skills, and configuring CI workflows or pre-commit hooks.

- Skill: `google/skills-lint-setup` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add google/skills-lint-setup`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/google/skills-lint-setup/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: Google (https://skillmd.com/u/google)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/google/skills-lint-setup

---


# Setting up Skill Validation with skills_lint

This skill covers **first-time wiring** of `skills_lint` into a
repository. For ongoing use — running the linter, interpreting
output, and writing custom rules — see the
[`skills-lint-validation`](../skills-lint-validation/SKILL.md)
skill. For copy-pasteable CI workflow and pre-commit hook recipes,
see the [`Recipes` section of the README](../../../../README.md#recipes).

## Steps

1. **Add `skills_lint` as a `dev_dependency`.**

   ```yaml
   dev_dependencies:
     skills_lint: ^0.5.0
   ```

   **Isolate the dependency** in a `tool/` package when you can,
   instead of putting it on the root `pubspec.yaml` — keeps the
   linter's deps out of your runtime closure. If you must add it
   to multiple `pubspec.yaml` files, ensure the `ref:` (commit
   hash) is identical across all of them so resolution doesn't
   diverge.

2. **Create `skills_lint.yaml`** at the repository root so both
   the CLI and any embedded test invocation share the same config:

   ```yaml
   skills_lint:
     rules:
       check-relative-paths: error
       check-trailing-whitespace: error
     directories:
       - path: ".agents/skills"
   ```

   Rules enabled by default — `check-absolute-paths`,
   `valid-yaml-metadata`, `invalid-skill-name`,
   `description-too-long` — only need to be listed if you want to
   change their severity. See [`RULES.md`](../../RULES.md) for the
   full list.

3. **Generate a baseline** if you're integrating into a repository
   with pre-existing skills that have legacy violations you don't
   want to fix immediately:

   ```bash
   dart run skills_lint --skills-directory=.agents/skills --generate-baseline
   ```

   This writes the current set of failures into an ignore file so
   the next run exits clean. New violations introduced after the
   baseline still surface as errors.

4. **Wire it into CI.** Use the
   [GitHub Actions recipe](../../../../README.md#recipes) from the README
   verbatim, or follow the
   [pre-commit hook recipe](../../../../README.md#recipes) below it.

## When you're done

The skills-lint-validation skill takes over from here for
day-to-day use.