Using Vale

Crossplane relies on Vale to enforce the style guide.

Crossplane's Vale style definitions are in the utils/vale directory.

{{< hint "important" >}} The Crossplane community is updating existing content to pass Vale. Until the community completes the project Vale errors are only enforced for new or changed content. The community approves PRs with Vale errors in unmodified document sections. {{< /hint >}}

Install Vale

Follow the directions on the Vale website to install the Vale binary.

Crossplane CI uses Vale v3.7.1 or later.

Run Vale

Run Vale on all documentation from the command-line with

vale --config="utils/vale/.vale.ini" content/

To run Vale on a single file use

vale --config="utils/vale/.vale.ini" content/contribute/writing-style-guide.md

{{<hint "tip" >}} VSCode has a Vale plugin. VSCode runs the Vale checks when saving a markdown file. {{</hint >}}

Vale styles

Crossplane uses the following Vale styles:

• Alex - for insensitive, inconsiderate writing.
• GitLab
  • for the GitLab documentation style guide.
• Google - for the Google developer documentation style guide.
• Microsoft - for the Microsoft style guide.
• proselint - for higher quality writing.
• Crossplane - spelling exceptions for Kubernetes and Crossplane related words.
• write-good - for higher quality writing.

{{<hint "warning" >}} Crossplane maintainers consider Vale warnings the same as errors.

Error levels aren't changed to make Vale style maintenance easier. {{< /hint >}}

Spelling errors and exceptions

Spelling exceptions are in utils/vale/styles/Crossplane.

• allowed-jargon.txt - technical terms allowed in the docs
• brands.txt - brand and product names
• crossplane-words.txt - words specific to Crossplane
• provider-words.txt - words related to Providers and Provider resources
• spelling-exceptions.txt - English words that are incorrectly flagged as errors

If Vale considers a word incorrect add an exception to one of the text files along with your pull request.

Because of how Vale parses words the following are errors:

• Hugo shortcodes without a space between the quote and angle bracket.
  For example {{</* expand "Reference Composition"*/>}}
• Markdown links containing a line break.
• Hugo {{</* ref */>}} links containing a line break.
• Markdown link styling outside of the square brackets.
  For example _[error]_ is an error. Use [_works_] instead.

Ignore Vale rules

Vale can turn off specific rules or all rules inside a doc.

All ignored rules must include a justification for why they're ignored.

After the ignored content turn the rules back on.

{{<hint "important" >}} Vale ignores rules not turned back on for the rest of the document. {{< /hint >}}

Sentence length

Vale counts words in a link URL in the gitlab.SentenceLength check.

Aim for 25 to 30 word sentences. If a URL triggers a Vale error wrap the sentence in a rule disabling the rule.

<!-- vale gitlab.SentenceLength = NO -->
The XRD `version` is like the 
[API versioning used by Kubernetes](https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/using-api/#api-versioning).
The version shows how mature or stable the API is and increments when changing,
adding or removing fields in the API.
<!-- vale gitlab.SentenceLength = YES -->

Ignore all rules

Use <!-- vale off --> to ignore all Vale rules and <!-- vale on --> to turn Vale back on.

For example,

<!-- vale off -->
<!-- turn off vale checking for this example -->
The following example will use passive voice and lowercase crossplane. Do not do this.
<!-- vale on -->

Ignore specific rules

Ignore a specific rule with <!-- vale <rule name> = NO --> and turn the rule back on with <!-- vale <rule name> = YES -->.

Do not turn off rules without good reasons.

For example,

<!-- vale Microsoft.Contractions = NO -->
<!-- turn off contractions for the example -->
Do not turn off rules without good reasons.
<!-- vale Microsoft.Contractions = YES -->

{{<hint "important" >}} Vale requires capitalization for YES and NO and a space around =. {{</hint >}}

Vale settings

The Vale configuration for the repository is in utils/vale/vale.ini.

{{< hint "note" >}} The vale.ini file is a Vale configuration file. Read the Vale documentation for more information about the vale.ini file. {{< /hint >}}

Some imported Vale styles don't apply or duplicate other rules. Disable individual rules inside the vale.ini file.

For example Google and Microsoft rules both cover the use of first person words like I. The docs vale.ini disables the Microsoft rule to prevent duplicate errors.