Flags reference

A reference for the flags (options) available on each CLI subcommand. The set of flags differs by subcommand.

Common flags

Available on every subcommand.

Flag	Value	Default	Description
--config <path>	Path	(auto-detected)	Explicit path to contextlint.config.json
--cwd <path>	Path	Current directory	Working directory used to resolve globs and paths
--help	—	—	Show help
--version	—	—	Show the version

If --config is omitted, contextlint walks up from --cwd looking for contextlint.config.json. For details, see Config auto-detection.

lint (default)

Flag	Value	Default	Description
[files...]	Glob list	—	Files / glob patterns to validate. Overrides the config’s include
--format <format>	human / json	human	Output format
--watch	—	—	Re-lint automatically when files change

For --format behavior see JSON output, and for --watch see Watch mode.

init

Flag	Value	Default	Description
--cwd <path>	Path	Current directory	Output directory for the config file

There are no options beyond the interactive mode entered when running with no arguments.

compile

Flag	Value	Default	Description
--outdir <path>	Path	The config’s compile.outdir (or .claude/skills/contextlint)	Output directory for SKILL.md
--dry-run	—	—	Print a summary of what would be generated without writing

impact

Flag	Value	Default	Description
<file>	Path (required)	—	Source file whose impact is being analyzed
--format <format>	human / json	human	Output format

slice

Flag	Value	Default	Description
<query>	Path / ID (required)	—	Query identifying the documents to extract
--depth <depth>	Non-negative integer	2	Maximum depth for graph traversal
--format <format>	human / json	human	Output format

graph

Flag	Value	Default	Description
--format <format>	human / json	human	Output format