plxt (Formatter & Linter)

Overview

plxt is a fast formatting and linting tool for TOML, MTHDS, and PLX files in Pipelex projects. It ensures consistent style across all configuration and pipeline definition files, powered by the taplo engine.

Installation

plxt is included as a Pipelex development dependency. It is automatically installed into your virtual environment when you run:

make install

You can verify the installation with:

.venv/bin/plxt --help

Configuration

plxt reads its configuration from .pipelex/plxt.toml at the root of your project. This file controls file discovery, formatting rules, and per-file-type overrides.

File Discovery

The include and exclude top-level keys control which files plxt processes:

include = ["**/*.toml", "**/*.mthds", "**/*.plx"]

exclude = [
  ".venv/**",
  ".mypy_cache/**",
  ".ruff_cache/**",
  ".pytest_cache/**",
  "__pycache__/**",
  "target/**",
  "node_modules/**",
  ".git/**",
  "*.lock",
]

Supported File Types

Extension	Description
`.mthds`	Method definitions
`.plx`	Method definitions (legacy extension)
`.toml`	Standard TOML configuration files

Key Formatting Options

The [formatting] section in plxt.toml controls the global formatting behavior. Each option can be overridden per file type using [[rule]] sections.

Option	Default	Description
`align_entries`	`true`	Align consecutive `key = value` entries so `=` signs line up
`align_comments`	`true`	Align end-of-line comments on consecutive lines
`array_trailing_comma`	`true`	Add a trailing comma after the last element in multiline arrays
`array_auto_expand`	`true`	Expand arrays to multiple lines when exceeding `column_width`
`column_width`	`80`	Target maximum line width used for auto-expand/collapse
`compact_arrays`	`true`	Omit spaces inside single-line array brackets
`trailing_newline`	`true`	Ensure files end with a newline character
`reorder_keys`	`false`	Sort top-level keys alphabetically

For the full list of options, see the comments in .pipelex/plxt.toml.

Per-File-Type Rules

You can define [[rule]] sections to apply different formatting settings to different file types. For example, the default configuration includes separate rules for .toml files and for .mthds/.plx files:

[[rule]]
include = ["**/*.toml"]
[rule.formatting]
# TOML-specific overrides here

[[rule]]
include = ["**/*.mthds", "**/*.plx"]
[rule.formatting]
align_entries = true
array_auto_collapse = true
# ... more MTHDS/PLX-specific overrides

Usage

Command Line

Format all discovered files in place:

.venv/bin/plxt fmt

Check formatting without modifying files (useful for CI):

.venv/bin/plxt fmt --check

Lint all discovered files:

.venv/bin/plxt lint

Make Targets

The following Make targets are available for convenience:

Target	Description
`make plxt-format`	Format all MTHDS/TOML/PLX files
`make plxt-lint`	Lint all MTHDS/TOML/PLX files
`make merge-check-plxt-format`	Check formatting without modifying files
`make merge-check-plxt-lint`	Run lint check

plxt is also included in the composite check targets:

make c (check) runs plxt-format and plxt-lint alongside ruff, pyright, and mypy
make agent-check includes plxt-format and plxt-lint in the full quality pipeline