---
id: lintrunner
version: "0.13.1"
license: unclear
license_treatment: unclear
maintenance: active
---

# lintrunner

License: unclear · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 1.5M/mo

## What it is and what it does

Lintrunner is a polyglot linting orchestrator that runs multiple linters on a codebase with a unified configuration and output format. It determines which files need linting (by default, files changed in HEAD and the working tree), invokes each linter via a common protocol, and collects their results into a single report. The tool is designed for large projects with mixed languages and tooling—you configure linters once in a .lintrunner.toml file, and lintrunner handles parallelization, path selection, and result aggregation.

The package has no runtime dependencies and ships as a compiled binary (Rust implementation) with wheels for macOS, Linux, Windows, and RISC-V. It expects each linter to be wrapped in an adapter that outputs JSON Lines to stdout and respects a {{PATHSFILE}} placeholder for the list of paths to check. Git integration is built in: by default it lints only changed files, but you can override this with --all-files, --revision, --merge-base-with, or by passing paths directly.

Use it for:

- Enforce consistent code style across a monorepo with multiple languages using a single lintrunner command.
- Integrate linting into CI/CD pipelines with selective linter runs (--take, --skip) to balance thoroughness and speed.
- Adopt linting incrementally on an existing project by using --output oneline to navigate through lint messages.
- Run linters only on changed files in a pull request using --merge-base-with to avoid re-linting the entire codebase.
- Combine project-wide and local linter configs via multiple .lintrunner.toml files (e.g., lintrunner.toml and lintrunner.private.toml).

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Lintrunner orchestrates and runs multiple linters across a codebase, deciding which files need linting, invoking linters via a common protocol, and aggregating their results.

Yes, if you manage a polyglot codebase and want unified linter orchestration. Lintrunner is actively maintained with no external runtime dependencies and ships as a compiled binary with broad platform support. The main gotcha is the unclear license—verify it fits your project's constraints before committing. The learning curve is moderate: you must write linter adapters to implement the JSON Lines protocol, but the tool itself is straightforward to configure and use.

## Install

pip install lintrunner
uv add lintrunner
poetry add lintrunner

## Installing lintrunner

Before you install: Medium install friction due to platform-specific wheels and Rust compilation. Active maintenance with recent releases; last commit 2026-05-10 and monthly downloads in the millions suggest stable, widely-used tooling.

License in practice: License status is unclear—no SPDX identifier or raw license text provided. Verify the actual license terms in the repository before adopting in proprietary or restricted-license projects.

Quickstart:

pip install lintrunner

Create .lintrunner.toml with linter configurations, then:
lintrunner  # lints HEAD and working tree changes
lintrunner --all-files  # lints all configured paths
lintrunner foo.py bar.cpp  # lint specific files

Requires Python >=3.6 and git for change detection. Linters must be configured in .lintrunner.toml and implement lintrunner's protocol (JSON Lines output to stdout).

Verify before relying:

- Whether the unclear license is permissive, copyleft, or proprietary—check the repository for actual license file.
- Whether Rust compilation is required at install time or if pre-built wheels cover all target platforms.
- Performance characteristics when linting very large codebases or with many linters configured.

## Package facts

- License: not declared (unclear)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: medium
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 1.5M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

lint runner orchestration, multi-linter coordinator, polyglot linting tool, linter configuration management, git-aware linting, linter adapter protocol, unified linting framework, linting, ci-cd, polyglot

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