Imported from jimmypaolini/codebase (.agents/skills/spell-check/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add jimmypaolini/codebase --skill spell-check. Copyright stays with the author (MIT).

Spell Check

Use this skill to run cspell consistently in this codebase and fix failures by updating the correct dictionary files.

When to Use This Skill

• nx run-many --target=spell-check fails.
• nx affected --target=spell-check fails in CI or pre-commit workflows.
• Unknown word (...) appears in last-lint-staged-output.log.
• You need to add approved vocabulary (Latin terms, project acronyms, Postgres catalog columns, etc.) to cspell dictionaries.

Repository-Specific CSpell Configuration

• Main config file: configuration/cspell.config.yaml
• Dictionary folder: configuration/.cspell/
• Active custom dictionaries:
  • configuration/.cspell/lexico.txt
  • configuration/.cspell/affirmations.txt
  • configuration/.cspell/ai.txt
  • configuration/.cspell/astronomy.txt
  • configuration/.cspell/ics.txt
  • configuration/.cspell/infrastructure.txt
  • configuration/.cspell/nasa-horizons.txt
  • configuration/.cspell/python.txt
  • configuration/.cspell/tooling.txt

Important: In this repository, use configuration/.cspell/* as the source of truth for dictionary updates.

Workflow

1. Reproduce

Run full spell-check across projects:

pnpm exec nx run-many --target=spell-check

For focused checks, run one project:

pnpm exec nx run <project>:spell-check

Or run directly on specific files with the repository config:

pnpm exec cspell --config configuration/cspell.config.yaml --no-progress <file1> <file2>

2. Extract Unknown Words

If output is large, collect just unknown words:

rg -o "Unknown word \([^)]*\)" <log-file> \
  | sed -E 's/Unknown word \((.*)\)/\1/' \
  | sort -u

Use the exact casing reported by cspell when adding dictionary words.

3. Choose the Correct Dictionary

Select dictionary by domain:

• Lexico, Latin, lexico-ingestion, lexico-entities: configuration/.cspell/lexico.txt
• Astronomy or caelundas domain terms: configuration/.cspell/astronomy.txt
• Infrastructure/Kubernetes/Terraform terms: configuration/.cspell/infrastructure.txt
• Python toolchain terms: configuration/.cspell/python.txt
• Generic build/dev tooling terms: configuration/.cspell/tooling.txt

When in doubt for Lexico-family projects, prefer configuration/.cspell/lexico.txt.

3.1 Break Out a New Dictionary File

Create a new dictionary .txt file only when vocabulary is clearly domain-bounded and continuing to use an existing file would reduce maintainability.

Use this decision rule:

• Keep using an existing dictionary when:
  • The words are one-off additions or small batches.
  • The terms fit naturally in an existing domain dictionary.
• Create a new dictionary file when all are true:
  • At least one stable domain/team boundary exists (for example, a new app, subsystem, or external dataset family).
  • Expected volume is sustained (roughly 30+ domain terms now, or recurring additions over multiple PRs).
  • Ownership is clear (a specific project/team can curate it).
  • Reuse in other domains would be low.

If you create a new dictionary:

1. Add configuration/.cspell/<new-domain>.txt.
2. Register it in configuration/cspell.config.yaml under dictionaryDefinitions.
3. Add it to the dictionaries list in the same config.
4. Re-run:

pnpm exec nx run-many --target=spell-check

Editing a skill doc needs no synchronization run of its own — the command that regenerated a skills table of contents was retired with the table. The one exception is the generated types and scopes tables that several skill docs carry between marker comments: those come from configuration/conventional.config.cjs, so if a word landed inside one, change the config and regenerate rather than editing the table.

pnpm exec nx run synchronization:conventional-config:write
pnpm exec nx run synchronization:conventional-config:check

4. Add Words Safely

• Add only validated domain words, not typos.
• Keep one word per line.
• Preserve existing file style and ordering conventions used in that dictionary.
• Avoid adding broad or ambiguous words unless necessary.

5. Validate

Re-run the exact failing scope first, then the full target:

pnpm exec nx run <project>:spell-check
pnpm exec nx run-many --target=spell-check

Success criteria:

• No Unknown word errors remain.
• nx run-many --target=spell-check succeeds for all projects.

Troubleshooting

• Config not picked up:
  • Always pass --config configuration/cspell.config.yaml when invoking cspell directly.
• Wrong dictionary edited:
  • Confirm dictionary paths in configuration/cspell.config.yaml under dictionaryDefinitions.
• Large output is truncated:
  • Pipe output to a file and post-process unknown words with rg and sed.
• Case-sensitive failures:
  • Add the exact capitalization that appears in source, or both variants if needed.

Completion Checklist

• Reproduced the failure with Nx spell-check.
• Added only necessary words to the correct configuration/.cspell/*.txt file.
• Re-validated project-level spell-check (if applicable).
• Re-validated full workspace spell-check successfully.