Pedantic Mono Linter

pedantic_mono Static Analysis & Linter Guide

pedantic_mono provides an opinionated, highly recommended set of static analysis rules and linter configurations for Dart and Flutter applications, packages, and plugins. It builds on top of flutter_lints with stricter code hygiene and modern Dart best practices.

Guidelines

• Project Setup:
  • Always include pedantic_mono in dev_dependencies of pubspec.yaml.
  • In the project root's analysis_options.yaml, include the package configuration:

    include: package:pedantic_mono/analysis_options.yaml
    

• Zero-Tolerance Quality Rule:
  • Resolve all analyzer errors, warnings, and info-level diagnostics before committing or finalizing code changes. A clean static analysis report is mandatory.
• Automated Fixes:
  • Run dart fix --apply (or flutter pub run dart fix --apply) to automatically fix mechanical lint violations before addressing complex manual changes.
• Key Enforced Conventions:
  • Trailing Commas: Always add a trailing comma on multi-line parameter lists, argument lists, and collection literals.
  • Async/Await & Futures: Never leave unawaited Futures unhandled. Explicitly await them or use unawaited(...) from dart:async when fire-and-forget is intentional.
  • Const Constructors: Prefer const constructors whenever possible for immutable objects and widgets.
  • Explicit Types vs Inferred Types: Do not specify redundant types on closure parameters or local variables where the type is obvious, but ensure public API declarations have explicit return and parameter types.
  • Conditionals & Null Safety: Avoid unnecessary null checks (!) or redundant non-null assertions. Leverage pattern matching and switch expressions where applicable.

Examples

1. analysis_options.yaml Setup

include: package:pedantic_mono/analysis_options.yaml

analyzer:
  language:
    strict-casts: true
    strict-inference: true
    strict-raw-types: true

# Add custom project-specific overrides only if strictly necessary
# linter:
#   rules:
#     custom_rule: false

2. Resolving Common Lint Rules

Trailing Commas & Const Constructors

// ❌ Bad: Missing const and missing trailing commas
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
  return Container(
    padding: EdgeInsets.all(16.0),
    child: Text('Hello')
  );
}

// ✔️ Good: Properly const and includes trailing commas
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
  return const Padding(
    padding: EdgeInsets.all(16),
    child: Text('Hello'),
  );
}

Unawaited Futures

import 'dart:async';

// ❌ Bad: Unhandled future causes lint warning
void handleClick() {
  analyticsService.logEvent('button_clicked');
}

// ✔️ Good: Explicitly wrapped with unawaited or awaited
void handleClick() {
  unawaited(analyticsService.logEvent('button_clicked'));
}

Common Pitfalls & Anti-Patterns

• ❌ Anti-pattern: Disabling linter rules globally in analysis_options.yaml to suppress errors quickly.
  • ✔️ Correct: Fix the root cause in the code. If an exception must be made for generated files, configure analyzer.exclude for those specific generated file patterns (e.g. **/*.g.dart, **/*.freezed.dart).
• ❌ Anti-pattern: Using // ignore: <rule> comments across application code without justification.
  • ✔️ Correct: Refactor the code to satisfy the linter rule cleanly.