---
id: reformat-gherkin
version: "3.0.1"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# reformat-gherkin — Formatter for Gherkin language

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 170.5K/mo

## What it is and what it does

Reformat-gherkin is a command-line formatter for Gherkin feature files used in behavior-driven development (BDD) testing. It reads .feature files and applies consistent formatting rules—controlling keyword alignment, indentation width, line endings, and tag layout—so that teams maintain a uniform style regardless of who wrote the file. The tool wraps gherkin-official for parsing and uses click for CLI handling.

It operates as a standalone command-line utility or integrates into pre-commit workflows. You can run it on individual files, directories, or stdin/stdout; use --check to validate without modifying; and configure defaults via a .reformat-gherkin.yaml file in your project. The tool follows Unix conventions: exits 0 on success, 1 if --check finds differences, and 123 on internal errors.

Use it for:

- Enforce consistent Gherkin formatting across a team's BDD test suite before commits via pre-commit hooks.
- Reformat legacy feature files to a standard style when adopting a new BDD framework or coding standard.
- Validate feature file formatting in CI/CD pipelines using the --check flag to catch style violations.
- Adjust indentation and keyword alignment in bulk across many feature files with a single command.
- Standardize line endings (LF vs. CRLF) across feature files in multi-platform development teams.

## Worth the install?

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

Automatically formats Gherkin feature files to enforce consistent style and indentation, available as a command-line tool or pre-commit hook.

Yes, if you maintain Gherkin feature files and want automated, consistent formatting. The package is lightweight, actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and integrates cleanly with pre-commit workflows. The only caveat is that the last release was over 3 years ago; verify that it handles your specific Gherkin syntax and framework before relying on it in production pipelines.

## Install

pip install reformat-gherkin
uv add reformat-gherkin
poetry add reformat-gherkin

## Installing reformat-gherkin

Before you install: Low friction: pure Python wheel with six runtime dependencies (PyYAML, attrs, cattrs, click, gherkin-official, wcwidth). Actively maintained with recent commits; last release was over 3 years ago but repository remains active.

License in practice: MIT license (permissive) places no restrictions on use, modification, or distribution in commercial or private projects.

Quickstart:

pip install reformat-gherkin

reformat-gherkin path/to/feature.feature
# or with options:
reformat-gherkin --alignment right --tab-width 4 path/to/features/

Requires Python 3.7 or later.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package handles all Gherkin syntax variants (e.g., multiple languages, scenario outlines) without data loss.
- Performance characteristics on large feature file collections or deeply nested scenarios.
- Compatibility with specific BDD frameworks (Behave, pytest-bdd, etc.) beyond generic Gherkin parsing.

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 170.5K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

gherkin formatter, feature file formatting, bdd test formatting, gherkin code style, pre-commit gherkin, cucumber feature formatter, gherkin linter, bdd-testing, code-formatter, pre-commit-hook

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