Formatting & Linting

plxt is the CLI tool for formatting and linting .mthds and .toml files. It ensures consistent style across MTHDS projects.

Installation

plxt is distributed as a standalone binary. Install it from the pipelex-tools PyPI package (pip install pipelex-tools), or use the bundled version included with the VS Code extension.

Formatting

Format .mthds and .toml files in place:

# Format all .mthds and .toml files in the current directory (recursive)
plxt format .

# Format a single file
plxt format contract_analysis.mthds

# Format and see what changed (check mode — exits non-zero if changes needed)
plxt format --check .

The plxt format command (also available as plxt fmt) aligns entries, normalizes whitespace, and ensures consistent TOML style. Files are modified in place.

Linting

Lint .mthds and .toml files for structural issues:

# Lint all files in the current directory
plxt lint .

# Lint a single file
plxt lint contract_analysis.mthds

The plxt lint command checks for TOML structural issues and reports errors.

Configuration

plxt reads its configuration from a .pipelex/plxt.toml file in the project root or a parent directory. This file controls formatting rules (alignment, column width, trailing commas, etc.) and can define per-file-type overrides.

A basic configuration:

[formatting]
align_entries      = true
column_width       = 100
trailing_newline   = true
array_trailing_comma = true

For the full list of configuration options, see the Pipelex documentation.

Editor Integration

When the VS Code extension is installed, plxt formatting runs automatically on save. The extension uses the same formatting engine, so files formatted via CLI and editor produce identical results.