---
title: "Spellcheck Your Hugo Site With CSpell"
date: 2024-11-20T09:49:51-05:00
draft: false
tags:
- meta
---

Bla bla bla

[5]: https://cspell.org/

<!--more-->

### 1. Install CSpell

Assuming a modern version of Node.js (>= 18), you can use [npx][1] to download and run CSpell in a single command:

```sh
npx cspell content/**/*.md
```

You'll see a ton of spelling errors -- ignore them for now.

[1]: https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v10/commands/npx

### 2. Add config file

Next, let's create a basic config file. In the root of your site, put the following in `.cspell.json`:

```json
{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/streetsidesoftware/cspell/main/cspell.schema.json",
  "version": "0.2",
  "dictionaries": [
    "english"
  ]
}
```

### 3. Add additional languages

My site (especially the stuff in [/elsewhere][2] that I've mirrored from my company's website) has code snippets that the English dictionary doesn't recognize. Fortunately, CSpell ships with a bunch of [additional dictionaries][3]. Adding `"ruby"`, `"golang"`, and `"java"` to the `"dictionaries"` array makes a bunch of misspellings go away.

[2]: /elsewhere
[3]: https://github.com/streetsidesoftware/cspell-dicts/tree/main/dictionaries

### 4. Ignore front matter

```json
"patterns": [
  {
    "name": "front_matter",
    "pattern": "/^(-{3}|[+]{3})$(\\s|\\S)*?^\\1$/gm"
  }
],
"languageSettings": [
  {
    "languageId": "markdown",
    "ignoreRegExpList": [
      "front_matter",
    ]
  }
]
```

[6]: https://gohugo.io/content-management/front-matter/
[7]: https://github.com/streetsidesoftware/cspell/discussions/3456#discussioncomment-3438647

### 5. Ignore proper nouns

```json
{
  "name": "proper_nouns",
  "pattern": "/[\\W_][A-Z][\\S]+/g"
}
```

```json
"languageSettings": [
  {
    "languageId": "markdown",
    "ignoreRegExpList": [
      "front_matter",
      "proper_nouns"
    ]
  }
]
```

### 6. Fix spelling

### 7. Create custom dictionary

```sh
npx cspell --words-only --unique content/**/*.md >> .dictionary
```

```json
"dictionaryDefinitions": [
  {
    "name": "exceptions",
    "path": ".dictionary",
    "addWords": true
  }
],
```

```json
"dictionaries": [
  "english",
  "ruby",
  "golang",
  "exceptions"
]
```

```sh
npx cspell --words-only --unique content/**/*.md >> .dictionary
sort -o .dictionary .dictionary
```


### 8. Add to build pipeline

[8]: https://git.sr.ht/~dce/davideisinger.com/tree/main/item/.build.yml#L23-24

---

[Here's the final `.cspell.json` config file.][4]

[4]: https://git.sr.ht/~dce/davideisinger.com/tree/main/item/.cspell.json

---

```json
{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/streetsidesoftware/cspell/main/cspell.schema.json",
  "version": "0.2",
  "dictionaryDefinitions": [
    {
      "name": "exceptions",
      "path": ".dictionary",
      "addWords": true
    }
  ],
  "dictionaries": [
    "english",
    "ruby",
    "golang",
    "exceptions"
  ],
  "patterns": [
    {
      "name": "front_matter",
      "pattern": "/^(-{3}|[+]{3})$(\\s|\\S)*?^\\1$/gm"
    },
    {
      "name": "proper_nouns",
      "pattern": "/[\\W_][A-Z][\\S]+/g"
    }
  ],
  "languageSettings": [
    {
      "languageId": "markdown",
      "ignoreRegExpList": [
        "front_matter",
        "proper_nouns"
      ]
    }
  ]
}
```