amperser/proselint

Proselint is a command-line tool that checks English writing for stylistic and usage problems. Think of it like a spell checker, but instead of catching misspelled words it catches awkward phrasing, dubious word choices, and style issues. You run it on a text file, and it prints a list of suggestions with the exact line and column where each problem appears. The checks are drawn from well-known writing guides and the practices of respected editors and authors, including style references like Garner's Modern English Usage and the work of writers such as George Orwell and William Strunk. The goal is to make that accumulated writing wisdom available as an automated tool rather than requiring writers to memorize hundreds of rules. Installation is straightforward: a single pip command for most users, or through package managers on Fedora, Debian, and Ubuntu. It can also be set up as a pre-commit hook so it runs automatically every time you save or commit a document in a software project. Plugins are available for popular text editors including Vim, Emacs, Neovim, and previously for Atom, Sublime Text, and Visual Studio Code. When you run proselint on a file, each suggestion shows the check name and a short explanation. For example, the phrase "very unique" would trigger a note that "unique" cannot be compared and the modifier is unnecessary. The output can also be formatted as JSON, which is useful if you want to feed the results into another tool or script. For developers who want to call proselint from within a Python program rather than the command line, the package exposes a LintFile class. Individual checks can also be turned on or off through a configuration file, giving fine-grained control over which rules apply to a given project. The project is BSD-licensed.