TBL-001 Required columns

Overview

Validates that the header row of a table includes every required column. If any of the column names listed in requiredColumns is missing, an error is reported.

Why it matters

Even when teams agree that columns such as ID, Status, or Owner must exist in requirement tables, API specs, or data definitions, mistakes happen: a new table is added without those columns, or an existing table is partially rewritten and one column is dropped. This rule prevents that.

Options

Field	Type	Required	Description
requiredColumns	string[]	Yes	Array of column names that must exist
section	string	—	Restrict validation to tables under a specific section (substring match on the heading)
files	string	—	Glob of files this rule applies to

Bad example

## Requirements

| ID     | Description      |
| ------ | ---------------- |
| REQ-01 | User registration |

With requiredColumns: ["ID", "Status"], the missing Status column triggers a violation.

docs/requirements.md
  line 3  error  Missing required column "Status" in table  TBL-001

After fix

## Requirements

| ID     | Description       | Status |
| ------ | ----------------- | ------ |
| REQ-01 | User registration | stable |

Configuration example

{
  "rule": "tbl001",
  "options": {
    "requiredColumns": ["ID", "Status"],
    "section": "Requirements",
    "files": "specs/*.md"
  }
}

Related rules

• TBL-002 Empty cells — Once required columns exist, validates that their cells are not empty
• TBL-003 Allowed values — Validates that column values fall within an allowed list