---
title: Continuous integration
description: Gating a pull request on prose, using exit codes honestly.
icon: git-branch
---

lawlint is a single static binary with no runtime dependencies and no network
access, which makes it cheap to run on every pull request.

## Exit codes

| Code | Meaning | In CI |
| ---- | ------- | ----- |
| `0` | Clean, within limits | Pass |
| `1` | An error-severity finding, or warnings over `--max-warnings` | Fail the check |
| `2` | I/O or configuration problem | Fail the *build* — nothing was linted |

Keeping `2` distinct from `1` is the point: a `2` means your setup is broken and
the document was never examined. Do not collapse them into "non-zero means bad".

## A GitHub Actions job

```yaml .github/workflows/prose.yml
name: prose
on: pull_request

jobs:
  lawlint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Install lawlint
        run: curl -fsSL https://lawlint.com/install.sh | sh
      - name: Lint changed documents
        run: |
          lawlint --no-update-check --max-warnings 20 docs/**/*.md
```

`--no-update-check` skips the once-a-day release check, which has no business
running in CI.

## Choosing a gate

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Column>
    **Advisory** — run without `--max-warnings` so only error-severity findings
    fail. Everything else is information in the log. Start here.
  </Column>
  <Column>
    **Budgeted** — set `--max-warnings` to roughly today's count and ratchet it
    down. Prevents regression without demanding a cleanup first.
  </Column>
</Columns>

:::warning[Do not gate on the score]
The [human-likeness score](/docs/concepts/scoring) is a density measurement of
specific patterns, not a classifier. A score threshold in CI rewards whoever
learns which rules move it — gate on findings, which name what to change.
:::

## Machine-readable output

```sh
lawlint --format json --quiet draft.md > findings.json
```

`--quiet` suppresses the pretty report while preserving the exit status. See
the [JSON output reference](/docs/reference/json-output) for the schema, and key
off `tier` rather than the hard/soft terminology.

## Keep the judge out of it

The [AI judge](/docs/guides/judge) sends document text to a model provider and
can vary between runs. Neither belongs in a required check. Run the
deterministic rules in CI, and leave `--judge` for the desk.