# lawlint

> A linter for AI-generated legal and general text. Flags the patterns that make prose sound machine-written, and suggests more human, direct alternatives.

## Docs

- [Overview](https://lawlint.com/docs): lawlint flags the patterns that make legal and general prose sound machine-written, and suggests more human, direct alternatives.
- [Quickstart](https://lawlint.com/docs/quickstart): Install lawlint, lint a document, and understand what comes back.
- [Installation](https://lawlint.com/docs/installation): Install scripts, per-platform archives, building from source, and staying up to date.
- [Changelog](https://lawlint.com/docs/changelog): Every lawlint release, with the pull request behind each change.

## Concepts

- [Hard and soft rules](https://lawlint.com/docs/concepts/rules): The two user-facing rule kinds, the five engines behind them, and the tier names the API still serializes.
- [Scoring](https://lawlint.com/docs/concepts/scoring): How the 0–100 human-likeness score is computed, and which findings charge it.
- [File formats](https://lawlint.com/docs/concepts/file-formats): How lawlint reads plain text, Markdown, and Word documents — and what it preserves when it writes them back.

## Guides

- [Linting documents](https://lawlint.com/docs/guides/linting): Choosing input, selecting rules, and picking an output format.
- [Fixes and tracked changes](https://lawlint.com/docs/guides/fixing): Previewing with --diff, applying with --fix, and how Word documents are edited.
- [Setting up AI features](https://lawlint.com/docs/guides/ai-setup): What lawlint init does, which providers are supported, and where API keys are stored.
- [The AI judge](https://lawlint.com/docs/guides/judge): Running soft rules — inferential checks a regular expression cannot make.
- [Learning your voice](https://lawlint.com/docs/guides/learn): Mining a personal rule package from writing you have already done.
- [Authoring rules](https://lawlint.com/docs/guides/authoring-rules): Rule packages, the Markdown rule format, every frontmatter field, and testing what you write.
- [Simple English](https://lawlint.com/docs/guides/simple-english): Opt-in rules for clear technical prose inspired by ASD-STE100.
- [Continuous integration](https://lawlint.com/docs/guides/ci): Gating a pull request on prose, using exit codes honestly.

## Reference

- [CLI reference](https://lawlint.com/docs/reference/cli): Every command, flag, and exit code.
- [Configuration](https://lawlint.com/docs/reference/configuration): The .lawlint/config.json schema, discovery rules, and how CLI flags override it.
- [JSON output](https://lawlint.com/docs/reference/json-output): The schema of --format json — diagnostics, spans, fixes, and stats.
- [Rust SDK](https://lawlint.com/docs/reference/sdk): Embedding the lawlint engine — lawlint-core, LintOptions, and the WebAssembly build.

## Rules

- [Rules](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules): Every built-in rule, what it catches, and whether it charges the human-likeness score.
- [empty-hedge](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/empty-hedge): Flags hedges that carry no information about actual uncertainty.
- [no-achievement-language](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-achievement-language): Flags achievement language and hype in reports, PRs, and docs.
- [no-actually-as-filler](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-actually-as-filler): Flags “actually” when it adds emphasis instead of a fact.
- [no-ai-cliches](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-ai-cliches): Flags common AI-writing clichés.
- [no-anaphoric-openers](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-anaphoric-openers): Flags repeated sentence openers across a document
- [no-antithesis](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-antithesis): Flags rhetorical antithesis that balances one idea against another.
- [no-binary-contrast](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-binary-contrast): Flags formulaic binary-contrast constructions.
- [no-colon-reveal](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-colon-reveal): Flags dramatic colon reveals at sentence starts.
- [no-contrasting-pairs](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-contrasting-pairs): Flags formulaic contrasting pairs
- [no-corporate-register-verbs](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-corporate-register-verbs): Flags corporate-register verbs
- [no-corrective-negation](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-corrective-negation): Flags corrective-negation constructions
- [no-dead-metaphors](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-dead-metaphors): Flags worn-out metaphors and figures of speech.
- [no-doublets](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-doublets): Flags legal doublets and triplets
- [no-dramatic-fragment](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-dramatic-fragment): Flags dramatic fragments and negative-listing constructions.
- [no-em-dash](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-em-dash): Flags em dashes
- [no-em-dash-overuse](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-em-dash-overuse): Flags excessive em dashes
- [no-empty-emphasis](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-empty-emphasis): Flags overused empty emphasis words
- [no-en-dash](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-en-dash): Flags en dashes outside numeric ranges.
- [no-faux-insight](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-faux-insight): Flags faux-insight setups that posture before making a claim.
- [no-filler-intensifiers](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-filler-intensifiers): Flags filler intensifiers
- [no-foreign-phrases](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-foreign-phrases): Flags decorative foreign phrases with an everyday English equivalent.
- [no-hedging](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-hedging): Flags excessive hedging language
- [no-importance-puffery](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-importance-puffery): Flags inflated claims about importance or status.
- [no-landing-sentence](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-landing-sentence): Flags short closing sentences written for rhetorical effect.
- [no-legalese](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-legalese): Flags archaic or unnecessarily formal legalese.
- [no-marketing-language](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-marketing-language): Flags marketing language, hype, and filler.
- [no-metronomic-cadence](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-metronomic-cadence): Flags predictable sentence-length cadence
- [no-negative-parallelism](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-negative-parallelism): Flags repeated negative parallelism
- [no-nominalization](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-nominalization): Flags weak verbs paired with nominalized nouns
- [no-not-only](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-not-only): Flags not-only/but-also constructions
- [no-paired-phrasing](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-paired-phrasing): Flags excessive paired phrasing
- [no-paragraph-pinning](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-paragraph-pinning): Flags paragraphs that open and close by repeating the same theme.
- [no-parallel-sentence-structure](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-parallel-sentence-structure): Flags repeated syntactic templates across sentences in a paragraph.
- [no-parataxis](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-parataxis): Flags marches of short coordinate clauses and sentences.
- [no-parenthetical-asides](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-parenthetical-asides): Flags frequent parenthetical asides
- [no-passive-overuse](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-passive-overuse): Flags likely passive-voice overuse
- [no-performed-enthusiasm](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-performed-enthusiasm): Flags performed enthusiasm
- [no-repetitive-openers](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-repetitive-openers): Flags repeated sentence openings.
- [no-rhetorical-setups](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-rhetorical-setups): Flags rhetorical setups that delay the substantive point.
- [no-robotic-transitions](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-robotic-transitions): Flags overuse of formulaic transitions
- [no-rule-of-three](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-rule-of-three): Flags dense repeated triplet constructions
- [no-semicolons](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-semicolons): Flags semicolons.
- [no-setup-payoff](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-setup-payoff): Flags staged questions or tensions resolved by the next sentence.
- [no-stacked-noun-phrases](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-stacked-noun-phrases): Flags stacked noun phrases before abstract head nouns
- [no-summary-beat](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-summary-beat): Flags closing sentences that recap a paragraph without adding information.
- [no-superficial-analysis](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-superficial-analysis): Flags trailing participial clauses that pretend to explain significance.
- [no-sycophantic-openers](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-sycophantic-openers): Flags sycophantic openers
- [no-throat-clearing](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-throat-clearing): Flags throat-clearing openers
- [no-weasel-attribution](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/no-weasel-attribution): Flags vague attributions without a named source.
- [oxford-comma](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/oxford-comma): Flags lists that omit the Oxford comma.
- [padded-elaboration](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/padded-elaboration): Flags sentences that restate the previous point without adding new information.
- [prefer-concise-phrases](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/prefer-concise-phrases): Flags padded phrases that a shorter word or nothing replaces.
- [prefer-short-words](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/prefer-short-words): Flags long words that have a short everyday equivalent.
- [prefer-spoken-voice](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/prefer-spoken-voice): Flags prose that works on the page but not in a spoken explanation.
- [sentence-length](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/sentence-length): Flags sentences that are difficult to read.
- [triad-overuse](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/triad-overuse): Flags documents dense with three-part parallel constructions.
- [uniform-sentence-rhythm](https://lawlint.com/docs/rules/uniform-sentence-rhythm): Flags documents whose sentence lengths barely vary.