https://github.com/couchbaselabs/docs-style-guide
Couchbase documentation style guide
https://github.com/couchbaselabs/docs-style-guide
docs docs-tooling
Last synced: 5 months ago
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Couchbase documentation style guide
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/couchbaselabs/docs-style-guide
- Owner: couchbaselabs
- Created: 2016-10-20T19:15:58.000Z (over 9 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-12-18T19:54:49.000Z (6 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-12-26T16:19:54.379Z (6 months ago)
- Topics: docs, docs-tooling
- Language: HTML
- Homepage: https://docs.couchbase.com/styleguide/index.html
- Size: 2.26 MB
- Stars: 4
- Watchers: 32
- Forks: 30
- Open Issues: 3
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
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README
# Couchbase Vale Style Guide
This repository is the home of the Couchbase Style Guide files - also translated into Vale format!
[Vale](https://vale.sh/) is an open-source text linter that Couchbase uses to help enforce style guidelines, right inside your code editor.
## Get Started
To get started with the Vale Style guide, you need to:
1. Clone this repository to your computer.
2. [Install Vale](#install-vale).
3. [Set up a `.vale.ini` file](#set-up-a-valeini-file).
4. [Install AsciiDoctor](#install-asciidoctor).
### Install Vale
To install Vale:
1. If you haven't already, install a package manager:
- On Windows: [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/install)
- On Mac: [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/)
- On GNU/Linux: Don't use the Snap package manager. [Download the precompiled binary of Vale](https://vale.sh/docs/vale-cli/installation/#github-releases).
2. Open a terminal application with administrator permissions.
3. Follow the instructions at [Vale.sh](https://vale.sh/docs/vale-cli/installation/) for your platform.
The package manager does all of the heavy lifting to install Vale. If you receive a prompt to run additional scripts from your terminal, approve it.
### Set Up A .vale.ini File
The `.vale.ini` file contains all of the necessary configuration for Vale to lint your text files.
You'll need to create this file and configure it, to make sure that Vale pulls in the style rules from the correct location on your computer:
1. In your file explorer, go to your `$HOME` directory:
- On Windows: `C:\Users\`
- On Mac: `/Users/`
- On Linux: the location of the `$HOME` directory varies based on your specific Linux distribution.
2. In your `$HOME` directory, create a new plain text file called `.vale.ini`.
3. Open the `.vale.ini` file in a text editor.
4. Copy and paste the following text into the `.vale.ini` file:
```
StylesPath = ""
MinAlertLevel = suggestion
Vocab = Couchbase
[asciidoctor]
description = YES
docname = YES
doctitle = YES
doctype = YES
docfile = YES
example-caption = YES
figure-caption = YES
important-caption = YES
listing-caption = YES
note-caption = YES
outfile = YES
part-signifier = YES
preface-title = YES
table-caption = YES
tip-caption = YES
toc-title = YES
warning-caption = YES
experimental = YES
attribute-missing = drop
[*.{adoc}]
BasedOnStyles = Vale, write-good, proselint, Couchbase, Google
```
5. Inside the quotation marks for the `StylesPath`, enter the location on your computer of the `ValeStyles` folder in this repository.
For example, `C:\Users\\GitHub\docs-style-guide\ValeStyles` or `/Users//GitHub/docs-style-guide/ValeStyles`.
### Install AsciiDoctor
You need to install AsciiDoctor so Vale knows how to interpret the AsciiDoc file format that Couchbase uses to author documentation.
To use Vale with AsciiDoc on Windows, you need to install Ruby before you can install AsciiDoctor.
For all other systems, you can just install the AsciiDoctor package on your computer.
#### Windows
1. In a terminal window, run:
```
choco install ruby
```
2. Then:
```
gem install asciidoctor
```
#### MacOS
1. In a terminal window, run:
```
brew install asciidoctor
```
#### GNU/Linux
Consult [the AsciiDoctor Docs](https://asciidoctor.org/#linux-package-managers) for details based on your specific distribution's package manager.
## Lint a File
After you've done all the setup, you're ready to lint some files!
1. Open the file or folder's location on your filesystem in a terminal window.
2. Run `vale ` or `vale `.
> **Tip**: If you want Vale to print to a file that you can review later, add `> .txt` to the end of your Vale command:
```
vale myFolder > valeResults.txt
```
Vale generates a report that provides the following information:
1. If you ran Vale on a folder, the name of the file where Vale found the following list of issues.
2. The line number and character/column number where Vale found an issue.
3. The severity of the issue: Suggestion, Warning, or Error.
4. The description of why Vale flagged the issue.
5. The location of the YAML file that flagged the issue, written as `.`, based on the contents of `ValeStyles` in this repository.
If you run into issues linting a folder:
- Check your `.vale.ini` to see what file types Vale lints. If you see a [*] above the `BasedOnStyles` setting, Vale lints all file types. Enter a file type (`.adoc`, for example) to change the scope.
- Change the folder to limit the scope of the files you want Vale to lint. Large numbers of files might not run correctly through Vale.
For a nicer editing experience, try [linting in real time inside VS Code](#linting-in-real-time).
## Linting in Real Time
You can also get live feedback as you write from the Vale VSCode extension:
1. Click **Extensions**.
2. Search for **Vale VSCode** (by Chris Chinchilla).
3. Click **Install**.
4. Click the gear and go to **Extension Settings**.
5. Click **Enable spell checking with Vale**.
6. Set **Readability Problem Location** to **both**, or just **inline**.
7. Restart VS Code, by closing any open editor windows and reopening the application.
If the extension does not work as expected, you can go back into your Extension Settings for Vale and try the following:
1. In Config, input the path to your .vale.ini:
* Mac: `/Users//.vale.ini`
* Windows: `C:\Users\\.vale.ini`
2. Find the path to the Vale.exe and add it in the Path field:
* Mac: `/usr/local/bin/vale`
* Windows: `C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\vale\tools\vale.exe`
Only make one of these changes at a time to help with troubleshooting. Make sure to restart VS Code in-betweeen any changes.
> **Note**:
The Vale VS Code extension only runs and checks for problems when the you save an open file. You can go to **File** and select **Auto Save** to have VSCode automatically save files as you are typing - giving you truly instant feedback on your writing. Be aware that this setting applies globally, and may have side-effects elsewhere.
## Edit Vale Styles
To tweak the existing styles in Vale, open any `.yml` file in a text editor and make your changes.
Vale uses Go-based RegEx. If you need help to write a RegEx pattern, use a site like [regex101.com](https://regex101.com/) to learn syntax.
Make sure to actually test any of your rules through [Vale Studio](https://studio.vale.sh/).
Keep in mind that Vale extends the Go-based RegEx, and supports lookahead and lookbehind patterns.
If you have a specific term like a page or product name that must be spelled the same and appear the same way everywhere, add it to the **Vocab** files:
1. Go to `ValeStyles\config\vocabularies\Couchbase`.
2. Do one of the following:
- To add a word or phrase that Vale should never flag as incorrect in any other rule, modify the `accept.txt` file.
- To add a word or phrase that Vale should always reject that isn't yet covered by another rule, modify the `reject.txt` file.
Keep the following in mind:
- Add only a single word or phrase per line to the `accept.txt` or `reject.txt`.
- If multiple spellings for your word or phrase are correct, make sure that you add them with RegEx to the `accept.txt`. Otherwise, Vale flags any spellings or capitalization styles that don't exactly match what's present in the file.
- If your word or phrase includes punctuation or other characters that are a part of RegEx syntax, make sure you escape them with a backslash (\\). Otherwise, Vale breaks.