CLI Flags

cfv check [flags] [<search_path>...]

Bare cfv [flags] [<search_path>...] also works and is equivalent to cfv check.

If no search path is provided, cfv searches the current directory. Use - to read from stdin (requires --file-types).

Subcommands

Subcommand	Description
check	Validate config files. Default when omitted.
format	Check or fix formatting of config files.
version	Print the version and exit.
help	Show help for a subcommand.

check flags

All flags below apply to the check subcommand.

Flag	Type	Default	Description
-depth	int	unlimited	Maximum recursion depth. 0 disables recursion.
-exclude-dirs	string	—	Comma-separated list of directory names to skip.
-exclude-file-types	string	—	Comma-separated list of file types to ignore. Cannot be used with -file-types.
-file-types	string	all	Comma-separated list of file types to validate. Cannot be used with -exclude-file-types.
-fix	bool	false	Apply safe fixes automatically (trailing commas, schema coercion, formatting).
-unsafe	bool	false	Apply unsafe fixes. Requires -fix.
-gitignore	bool	false	Skip files matched by .gitignore patterns. Only active inside a Git repository.
--ignore-file	string	—	Apply gitignore-style patterns from a file relative to each search path. Repeatable.
-globbing	bool	false	Treat positional arguments as glob patterns.
-groupby	string	—	Group output by: filetype, directory, pass-fail, error-type. Comma-separated.
-merge-sarif	string	—	External SARIF file to append to SARIF output. Repeatable. Requires -reporter=sarif.
-merge-sarif-dir	string	—	Directory tree of .sarif or .sarif.json files to append to SARIF output. Requires -reporter=sarif.
-quiet	bool	false	Suppress all stdout output. Errors still print to stderr.
-reporter	string	standard	Output format and optional path. Format: <type>:<path>. Types: standard, json, junit, sarif, github. Repeatable.
-require-schema	bool	false	Fail files that support schema validation but don't declare a schema.
-no-schema	bool	false	Disable all schema validation. Cannot be combined with -require-schema, -schema-map, or -schemastore.
-schema-map	string	—	Map a glob pattern to a schema file. Format: <pattern>:<schema_path>. Repeatable.
-schemastore	bool	false	Enable automatic schema lookup by filename using the SchemaStore catalog.
-schemastore-path	string	—	Path to a local SchemaStore clone. Implies -schemastore.
-config	string	auto	Path to a .cfv.toml configuration file.
-no-config	bool	false	Disable all config file discovery (.cfv.toml, .prettierrc, taplo.toml, .yamlfmt, .editorconfig).
-type-map	string	—	Map a glob pattern to a file type. Format: <pattern>:<type>. Repeatable.
-watch	bool	false	Watch search paths for file changes and re-run validation on each changed file.

format flags

cfv format [flags] [<search_path>...]

Checks formatting of config files. With --fix, rewrites files in place. With --diff, prints a unified diff of what would change.

Format-specific flags

Flag	Type	Default	Description
-fix	bool	false	Rewrite files in place. Mutually exclusive with -diff.
-diff	bool	false	Print unified diff of formatting changes. Mutually exclusive with -fix.
-indent	int	0	Override indent width. 0 uses format default (2 for JSON/JSONC/YAML/XML).
-use-tabs	bool	false	Use tabs for indentation.
-sort-keys	bool	false	Sort mapping keys alphabetically.
-no-sort-keys	bool	false	Disable key sorting (overrides config file setting).
-line-ending	string	—	Line ending style: lf or crlf.
-max-line-width	int	0	Max line width hint. 0 uses format default (80 for JSON/JSONC/YAML).
-quote-style	string	—	Quote style: double, single, or preserve (YAML only).
-no-config	bool	false	Disable all config file discovery (.cfv.toml, .prettierrc, taplo.toml, .yamlfmt, .editorconfig).
-no-editorconfig	bool	false	Ignore .editorconfig files when resolving format options.

Shared flags

These flags work the same as in check.

Flag	Type	Default	Description
-depth	int	unlimited	Maximum recursion depth. 0 disables recursion.
-exclude-dirs	string	—	Comma-separated list of directory names to skip.
-exclude-file-types	string	—	Comma-separated list of file types to ignore. Cannot be used with -file-types.
-file-types	string	all	Comma-separated list of file types to format. Cannot be used with -exclude-file-types.
-gitignore	bool	false	Skip files matched by .gitignore patterns.
--ignore-file	string	—	Apply gitignore-style patterns from a file relative to each search path. Repeatable.
-globbing	bool	false	Treat positional arguments as glob patterns.
-groupby	string	—	Group output by: filetype, directory, pass-fail. Comma-separated.
-reporter	string	standard	Output format and optional path. Format: <type>:<path>. Types: standard, json, junit, sarif, github. Repeatable.
-quiet	bool	false	Suppress stdout output when writing to file.
-config	string	auto	Path to a .cfv.toml configuration file.
-type-map	string	—	Map a glob pattern to a file type. Format: <pattern>:<type>. Repeatable.