vale proselint fails: write-good suggestions block docs review

TL;DR

Stop running write-good as a failure gate. Either drop write-good from the styles vale loads, or lower those suggestions below the alert level so they warn instead of fail. The suggestions are stylistic opinions, not errors, and they misfire on technical docs constantly.

Verbatim error

vale proselint fails: write-good suggestions block docs review

Steps

1. Look at the vale output and confirm the style name. You will see lines like docs/guide.md:12:5:WriteGood.Weasel: 'very' is a weasel word with severity suggestion or warning. Expected: the flagged rules all start with WriteGood..

2. Open .vale.ini and find the BasedOnStyles line. If it lists write-good alongside other styles, remove it:

   BasedOnStyles = Vale

   Expected: re-running vale docs/ no longer reports any WriteGood rules.

3. If you want to keep some write-good checks but stop the gate from failing, set the minimum alert level so suggestions do not count as failures:

   MinAlertLevel = warning

   Expected: suggestions still show in output but vale exits 0 on suggestion-level hits.

4. For a one-off false positive on an otherwise good line, add a vale control comment naming the rule directly above the line (described in the vale docs as an inline disable comment), so the exception is visible in the diff. Expected: that line stops being flagged while the rest of the file is still checked.

Use this when

• vale fails a docs review on write-good suggestions.
• You need to configure which vale styles run in CI.
• write-good flags technical terms or normal phrasing as weasel words or passive voice.

Not for this skill when

• vale flags spelling errors (that is the spelling style, fix the words or the dictionary).
• vale itself crashes or cannot find styles (install or sync the styles first).
• The gate runs proselint directly, not through vale (then configure proselint separately).

Variant phrasings

• vale write-good suggestions failing CI
• how to disable write-good in vale
• vale WriteGood.Weasel blocking docs PR

Why it happens

write-good encodes one person's style opinions (avoid "very", avoid passive voice) as lint rules, and technical documentation legitimately uses those constructions all the time. When vale runs with write-good at error or warning level in a blocking gate, perfectly good docs fail review. It is a style advisor being used as a build breaker.

Edge cases

• vale control comments use markup comment syntax; keep them on their own line directly above the flagged line so the scope is obvious.
• If different docs need different styles, vale supports per-directory .vale.ini files; put stricter styles only where they belong.
• Syncing styles: if CI installs vale styles fresh each run, pin the style versions so a write-good update does not suddenly fail previously clean docs.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_Z1s5U80p8XoEuyGiaWcFyw

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_Z1s5U80p8XoEuyGiaWcFyw

Thread query: vale proselint fails: write-good suggestions block docs review

TL;DR: Stop running write-good as a failure gate. Either drop write-good from the styles vale loads, or lower those suggestions below the alert level so they warn instead of fail. The suggestions are stylistic opinions, not errors, and they misfire on technical docs constantly.