Single packages and monorepos

Workspace root

skif [PATH] lints the workspace containing PATH (default .). The workspace root is the nearest ancestor of PATH that declares a workspace: workspaces in package.json, or a pnpm-workspace.yaml. The root is used for configuration, every reported path, every fix write and the install step, so the result does not depend on the current directory.

skif.toml or .skif.toml is looked up in the workspace root only. There are no per-package configuration files; per-package differences are expressed with [[ignore]], group selectors and [js.workspaces."<dir>"].

Package manager detection

First match wins:

1. [workspace] package-manager in skif.toml.
2. The root package.json packageManager field, then devEngines.packageManager.
3. Lockfile presence: pnpm-lock.yaml, bun.lock / bun.lockb, yarn.lock, package-lock.json.
4. A pnpm-workspace.yaml implies pnpm.

If nothing indicates a manager, skif does not guess npm. Rules and fixes that depend on the manager skip what would be wrong for some manager; an npm workspace never receives a workspace:* specifier.

Workspace patterns

Patterns follow pnpm semantics for every package manager: dir/* for direct children that contain a package.json, dir/** for nested packages, and !pattern to remove matches. node_modules and dot-directories are never entered.

Monorepo configuration

[workspace]
ignore-packages = ["examples/*"]

[policy]
prefer = "highest"

[[version-groups]]
label = "Pin react across the repo"
dependencies = ["react", "react-dom"]
policy = "pinned"
pin = "19.1.0"

[[semver-groups]]
label = "Caret ranges for libraries"
packages = ["packages/*"]
range = "^"

[catalog]
mode = "prefer"
min-packages = 3

Single packages

skif lints the workspace that contains the start path, so a package is linted as part of the nearest ancestor that declares a workspace. If no ancestor declares one, skif exits with code 2 and says no workspace was found. A standalone project therefore needs a root package.json with workspaces (or a pnpm-workspace.yaml) to be linted. Rules that compare packages have little to compare in a one-package workspace; turn off those that do not fit:

[rules]
root-package-dependencies = "off"