typos

What it is and what it does

Typos is a command-line spell checker designed specifically for source code. It scans files for spelling mistakes and can automatically correct them, with built-in support for ignoring false positives through configuration files. Unlike traditional spell checkers that validate against a dictionary of correct words, typos maintains a curated list of known typo corrections to keep false positives low enough to run safely in CI/CD pipelines and pull requests without manual review.

The tool integrates with GitHub Actions, pre-commit hooks, and other CI systems, and provides multiple output formats (diff, JSON, plain text) for custom integrations. It handles common development scenarios like ignoring people's names, acronyms, and localized content through a `_typos.toml` configuration file. The package has no runtime dependencies and is distributed as pre-built binaries for multiple platforms and architectures.

Use it for:

• Run in CI/CD to catch spelling mistakes in pull requests before merge, configured to auto-correct or report only.
• Integrate with pre-commit hooks to check spelling locally before commits, using the tool's low false-positive design.
• Scan monorepos for spelling errors across many files and languages without slowing down the build pipeline.
• Configure file-type-specific rules to skip spell-checking localized content (like .po files) while still checking filenames.
• Generate JSON output to feed typo reports into custom dashboards or quality gates in your development workflow.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Finds and corrects spelling mistakes in source code across files, with configurable rules to minimize false positives and integrate into CI/CD workflows.

Yes. Typos is actively maintained, has no runtime dependencies, runs on all major platforms, and is specifically designed for source code with low false positives—making it safe to run unattended in CI. The permissive dual license and integration with standard tools (GitHub Actions, pre-commit) make it a straightforward addition to most development workflows.

Install

typos on PyPI

pip install typos

uv add typos

poetry add typos

Installing typos

Before you install

Medium install friction due to platform-specific wheels (macOS, Linux, Windows, including ARM64 support), but the package is actively maintained with a recent release and no runtime dependencies to manage.

License in practice

Dual-licensed under MIT or Apache 2.0, both permissive licenses that allow commercial and private use with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart

pip install typos
typos  # scan current directory for spelling mistakes
typos --write-changes  # automatically fix found typos

Requires Python 3.8 or later; the tool is a compiled binary wrapped for Python, so installation pulls a pre-built wheel for your platform.

Verify before relying

• Whether the dictionary of known typo corrections is regularly updated and how community contributions are incorporated.
• Performance characteristics on very large monorepos (the description claims 'fast enough' but no benchmarks are linked in the fact sheet).
• How the tool handles non-English source code or domain-specific terminology.

Package facts

Evidence: typos-1.49.0-py3-none-macosx_10_12_x86_64.whl; typos-1.49.0-py3-none-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; typos-1.49.0-py3-none-manylinux_2_17_aarch64.manylinux2014_aarch64.whl; typos-1.49.0-py3-none-manylinux_2_17_i686.manylinux2014_i686.whl; typos-1.49.0-py3-none-manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux2014_x86_64.whl; typos-1.49.0-py3-none-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl; typos-1.49.0-py3-none-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl; typos-1.49.0-py3-none-win32.whl; typos-1.49.0-py3-none-win_amd64.whl

Keywords: development, spelling

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