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fix(ls-metrics): report instead of panicking when nothing lints - #1144

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jdkato merged 1 commit into
vale-cli:v3from
VXNCXNX:fix/ls-metrics-empty-panic
Aug 19, 2026
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fix(ls-metrics): report instead of panicking when nothing lints#1144
jdkato merged 1 commit into
vale-cli:v3from
VXNCXNX:fix/ls-metrics-empty-panic

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@VXNCXNX VXNCXNX commented Aug 15, 2026

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What's broken

vale ls-metrics panics on any path that lints to zero files.

$ mkdir /tmp/vempty
$ vale ls-metrics /tmp/vempty
panic: runtime error: index out of range [0] with length 0
	main.printMetrics(...) cmd/vale/command.go:239
	main.main() cmd/vale/main.go:145

The guard above it is system.FileExists(args[0]), which is os.Stat(f) == nil and therefore true for a directory. linter.Lint returns an empty slice when nothing matches, and linted[0] is unchecked.

A single non-lintable file is fine, vale ls-metrics pic.png prints {}, which is exactly what makes this look covered. The reachable cases are an empty directory, a directory of only empty subdirectories, and a directory whose files all sit under a default-ignored path such as node_modules or .git.

The fix

Guard the index and return an error naming the situation:

$ vale ls-metrics /tmp/vempty
E100 [ls-metrics] Runtime error

'/tmp/vempty' contains no lintable files

An error rather than {}, because testdata/e2e/metrics.yaml already pins ls-metrics test.txt to exit 0 with {} for a real file Vale read and found no metrics in. Reusing {} for "Vale read nothing at all" would conflate the two and hide the mistake. core.NewE100 is what the sibling commands in command.go use, and handleError renders it and exits 2.

Verification

An empty-directory case in testdata/e2e/metrics.yaml, run by internal/e2e/e2e_test.go. It uses the suite's inline files: mechanism, since git cannot check in an empty directory, and puts the only file under node_modules so the walker skips it and the lint comes back empty.

With the guard reverted the case fails with the panic above instead of the expected output. go test ./... passes, and golangci-lint run ./cmd/... reports the same single pre-existing gosec issue with and without the change.

@jdkato
jdkato merged commit fcf0740 into vale-cli:v3 Aug 19, 2026
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tmeijn pushed a commit to tmeijn/dotfiles that referenced this pull request Aug 21, 2026
This MR contains the following updates:

| Package | Update | Change |
|---|---|---|
| [errata-ai/vale](https://github.com/errata-ai/vale) | minor | `v3.17.1` → `v3.18.0` |

MR created with the help of [el-capitano/tools/renovate-bot](https://gitlab.com/el-capitano/tools/renovate-bot).

**Proposed changes to behavior should be submitted there as MRs.**

---

### Release Notes

<details>
<summary>errata-ai/vale (errata-ai/vale)</summary>

### [`v3.18.0`](https://github.com/vale-cli/vale/releases/tag/v3.18.0)

[Compare Source](vale-cli/vale@v3.17.1...v3.18.0)

v3.18.0 is the largest expansion of Vale's format support since v3.0.0.

[MDX](https://docs.vale.sh/formats/mdx) is now parsed natively — `mdx2vast` is no longer required. This release also adds support for four new markup formats: [Typst](https://docs.vale.sh/formats/typst) (through the new [`typst2vast`](https://github.com/jdkato/typst2vast) program), [Quarto](https://docs.vale.sh/formats/quarto), [MyST](https://docs.vale.sh/formats/myst), and [QDoc](https://docs.vale.sh/formats/qdoc). R Markdown now works out of the box, and comment extraction now covers Lua, PHP, Haskell, R, Perl, and SCSS.

Beyond formats, there's a new `meta` [scope](https://docs.vale.sh/topics/scopes) for a document's machine-readable content, a `--plain-progress` flag, and per-package logging for `vale sync` in CI — plus a long list of fixes that make alert positions and scoping more accurate across every format.

> ✨ Sponsor Spotlight
>
> Special thanks to [Promptless](https://vale.sh/sponsors/promptless) — Vale's newest sponsor and the latest to receive a [Spotlight page](https://vale.sh/sponsors/promptless). Promptless suggests doc updates when your product changes; you review, edit, and ship.

#### Changelog

- [`6c382ec`](vale-cli/vale@6c382ecd) fix: stop element-scoped rules from matching sentence fragments ([#&#8203;1150](vale-cli/vale#1150))
- [`9b9594d`](vale-cli/vale@9b9594d0) fix: don't treat a word before a code span as inline markup ([#&#8203;1147](vale-cli/vale#1147))
- [`2b159ab`](vale-cli/vale@2b159ab6) fix: stop corrupting suggestions containing 'PIPE'
- [`390dda6`](vale-cli/vale@390dda6e) fix: compile glob patterns once at construction ([#&#8203;1145](vale-cli/vale#1145))
- [`fcf0740`](vale-cli/vale@fcf07409) fix(ls-metrics): prevent panic on empty directory ([#&#8203;1144](vale-cli/vale#1144))
- [`dd09d42`](vale-cli/vale@dd09d428) fix(core): resolve Lang and Transform in section order, not map order ([#&#8203;1143](vale-cli/vale#1143))
- [`85ee608`](vale-cli/vale@85ee6088) fix(dita): report dita's own error output instead of just the exit status ([#&#8203;1141](vale-cli/vale#1141))
- [`fd8c2e0`](vale-cli/vale@fd8c2e02) refactor: satisfy revive's empty-block
- [`2f65b83`](vale-cli/vale@2f65b836) fix: close display math on any line ending with `$$` ([#&#8203;1148](vale-cli/vale#1148))
- [`e587329`](vale-cli/vale@e5873290) fix(lint): treat an HTML comment as a text boundary outside inline elements ([#&#8203;1140](vale-cli/vale#1140))
- [`4691bd3`](vale-cli/vale@4691bd36) docs: add new spotlight
- [`37cb109`](vale-cli/vale@37cb109b) feat: add `--plain-progress`
- [`12fbbd7`](vale-cli/vale@12fbbd7f) feat: log each package when sync isn't writing to a terminal
- [`9a1a16c`](vale-cli/vale@9a1a16c3) fix: mark a QDoc image that has no alt text, and publish inline ones
- [`c154ac2`](vale-cli/vale@c154ac2a) Keep the extracted text one line per source line ([#&#8203;1135](vale-cli/vale#1135))
- [`8fe9804`](vale-cli/vale@8fe98044) refactor: CLI clean up and subcommand help
- [`ae6d749`](vale-cli/vale@ae6d7496) feat: add `vale test`
- [`e5a0286`](vale-cli/vale@e5a0286a) fix: read a shebang as a POSIX path
- [`eec2f59`](vale-cli/vale@eec2f59a) fix: read a .qdocinc as the include it is, and keep meta out of prose
- [`7618d04`](vale-cli/vale@7618d044) fix: only hand the Docutils source to a Python interpreter
- [`b596b0d`](vale-cli/vale@b596b0dc) fix: stop a string run's helper processes the way a file run does
- [`f3f3402`](vale-cli/vale@f3f34021) fix: keep `vale off` working when QDoc prose is escaped
- [`54efd3b`](vale-cli/vale@54efd3bb) fix: escape QDoc markup
- [`5666297`](vale-cli/vale@5666297b) fix: treat a snippet marker inside a QDoc comment as markup
- [`c2d1a55`](vale-cli/vale@c2d1a559) feat: add a meta scope for a document's machine-readable content
- [`33e4012`](vale-cli/vale@33e40124) fix: close QDoc's code blocks on the right command, and scope its divs
- [`5ae4867`](vale-cli/vale@5ae48670) fix: read only `/*!` as QDoc, and cover commands
- [`e60b5bc`](vale-cli/vale@e60b5bc3) fix: keep a rule's level in the section that set it
- [`c1e2fa0`](vale-cli/vale@c1e2fa01) fix: honor IgnoredScopes when a markup format is mapped onto source
- [`85c1343`](vale-cli/vale@85c13436) fix: place a match inside a block that inline markup rewrote
- [`b47ccb0`](vale-cli/vale@b47ccb06) fix: don't mask an autolink's URL twice
- [`65f5687`](vale-cli/vale@65f5687f) fix: skip `$…$` inline math
- [`b3bade4`](vale-cli/vale@b3bade4b) fix: lint a tight list item's own text as its own block
- [`4a6b7cf`](vale-cli/vale@4a6b7cfd) Don't lint a shebang as a comment ([#&#8203;1134](vale-cli/vale#1134))
- [`77179c0`](vale-cli/vale@77179c0a) fix: report spans against the file's actual bytes
- [`7f429e3`](vale-cli/vale@7f429e31) test: pin issue 1007's frontmatter and blockquote scenarios
- [`b049e35`](vale-cli/vale@b049e35f) feat: support the .scss extension
- [`b678b8d`](vale-cli/vale@b678b8d9) test: add QML case
- [`e82432d`](vale-cli/vale@e82432d7) feat: extract Lua, PHP, Haskell, R, and Perl comments with tree-sitter
- [`0e2f8bf`](vale-cli/vale@0e2f8bf3) eat: support QML sources via qml = qdoc
- [`cc710aa`](vale-cli/vale@cc710aa2) fix: treat only block comments as QDoc documentation
- [`bd1f33a`](vale-cli/vale@bd1f33a6) ci: install typst2vast, drop mdx2vast
- [`9708be6`](vale-cli/vale@9708be61) feat: support Typst
- [`15115bf`](vale-cli/vale@15115bfb) fix: place a rewritten block by its longest word, not its last
- [`5c91639`](vale-cli/vale@5c916393) fix: skip a repeated match's prior occurrences by count, not by masking
- [`db8c83c`](vale-cli/vale@db8c83cf) feat: support QDoc
- [`fca7b79`](vale-cli/vale@fca7b79b) feat: support Quarto
- [`286fc59`](vale-cli/vale@286fc59a) feat: parse MDX natively, dropping mdx2vast
- [`fedaf20`](vale-cli/vale@fedaf204) feat: support MyST
- [`eec788d`](vale-cli/vale@eec788d8) fix: read the character actually beside a match for inline code
- [`590278e`](vale-cli/vale@590278e5) feat: lint R Markdown out of the box
- [`4d8e228`](vale-cli/vale@4d8e2289) fix: strip tab indentation from block comments ([#&#8203;1131](vale-cli/vale#1131))
- [`02fb654`](vale-cli/vale@02fb6547) fix: switch on what every term of a chained scope needs
- [`f011cb0`](vale-cli/vale@f011cb02) fix: keep 'scope: paragraph' out of headings, tables, lists, and blockquotes

</details>

---

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