Vale Linter

Obsidian Vale Plugin

A plugin that integrates the Vale prose linter with Obsidian, providing configurable, offline-first inline style and grammar checking directly in your editor.

Features

• Inline Issue Display: See Vale issues highlighted directly in your Obsidian editor
• Real-time Checking: Automatically checks the current editor buffer as you type, including unsaved changes (configurable)
• Severity Indicators: Different visual styles for errors, warnings, and suggestions
• Interactive Hover Tooltips: Move from highlighted text into a stable popup to review and apply suggestions
• Status Bar Integration: Quick overview of issues in the current document
• Customizable: Configure Vale path, config file, and visual styles

Prerequisites

Before using this plugin, you need to have Vale installed on your system and configured.

The plugin sends editor text to Vale through standard input and associates it with the note's vault-relative path. It does not create temporary copies of your notes. This keeps checking local, preserves path-specific .vale.ini rules, and works with strictly confined Vale installations such as Snap.

Installation

Currently getting plugins approved in the Obsidian Community Plugin list can take some time. In the meantime, install the Vale plugin manually or use BRAT for easier updates.

Manual installation

1. Download the latest release from the releases page
2. Extract the files to your vault's .obsidian/plugins/obsidian-vale/ folder
3. Reload Obsidian
4. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins

Using BRAT

BRAT (Beta Reviewers Auto-update Tester) allows you to install plugins directly from GitHub and receive automatic updates.

1. Install the BRAT plugin from Obsidian's Community Plugins
2. Enable BRAT in Settings → Community plugins
3. Open BRAT settings and click "Add Beta plugin"
4. Enter this repository URL: https://github.com/ChrisChinchilla/obsidian-vale
5. Click "Add Plugin" and wait for installation
6. Enable the Vale plugin in Settings → Community plugins

BRAT automatically checks for and installs updates to the plugin.

Configuration

Access the plugin settings through Settings → Plugin Options → Vale Linter:

Settings

• Vale Executable Path: Path to the Vale executable (default: vale)

  • If Vale is in your PATH, leave as vale
  • Otherwise, provide the full path (e.g., /usr/local/bin/vale)

• Vale Config File Path: Path to your .vale.ini file

  • Leave empty to use Vale's default config discovery
  • Or specify a custom path (e.g., /home/user/.vale.ini)

• Auto-check Enabled: Toggle automatic checking as you type

• Debounce Delay: Time to wait (in milliseconds) after you stop typing before checking

• Severity Colors: Customize the colors for different severity levels

Usage

Commands

The plugin provides the following commands (accessible via Command Palette - Cmd/Ctrl+P):

• Check current file with Vale: Manually run Vale on the current file
• Toggle auto-check: Enable/disable automatic checking
• Clear Vale issues: Clear all highlighted issues from the editor

Visual indicators

Issues are displayed with different underline styles based on severity:

• Errors: Red wavy underline (e.g., spelling mistakes, grammar errors)
• Warnings: Orange wavy underline (e.g., style suggestions)
• Suggestions: Blue dotted underline (e.g., optional improvements)

Status bar

The status bar shows a summary of issues in the current file:

• Vale: Ready - No issues found
• Vale: 2 errors, 1 warning, 3 suggestions - Issue count by severity
• Vale: Checking... - Vale is currently analyzing the file

Troubleshooting

Vale not found

If you see "Vale not found" errors:

1. Ensure Vale is installed: Run vale --version in your terminal
2. If Vale is not in your PATH, specify the full path in plugin settings
3. On Windows, you might need to include the .exe extension

No issues detected

If Vale runs but finds no issues:

1. Check your .vale.ini configuration
2. Ensure you have styles installed (vale sync)
3. Verify Vale works from command line: vale your-file.md

Snap installations

Vale installed through Snap can lint editor content because the plugin uses standard input instead of a temporary file. Your Vale configuration and style files must still be in locations that the Snap package is permitted to read. If configuration loading fails, check snap connections vale and the location of your vault and .vale.ini file.

Performance issues

If the plugin causes lag:

1. Increase the debounce delay in settings
2. Disable auto-check and use manual checking