Rules and Suites

Nova ships two kinds of checks. ESLint rules are individual, per-file checks you enable one at a time in your flat config. Vitest conformance suites are importable test suites that each scan across multiple files at once — frontmatter, links, tables, and type declarations.

Install

If the package is not in your repo yet, go to Setup and Configure and choose Install into project.

warning

Nova must be installed in your project before importing rules and suites. This is because Node.js resolves imports from your project's node_modules folder.

info

If you wish, you can install Nova globally (into the system) and locally (into the project) at the same time. They will not conflict with each other.

Purpose and Scope

ESLint Rules

Custom rules for JavaScript and TypeScript projects. Each rule is targeted, independent, and safe to adopt — enable only what you need. Each rule focuses on a single concern.

Conventions

Rule	Synopsis
No Default Export Declaration	Disallow attaching function or class declarations to `export default`.
No Implicit Boolean	Require explicit comparisons instead of truthy/falsy coercion in conditions.
Require Explicit Return	Require an explicit `return;` at the end of void function bodies.
Require Hash Private	Require `#hash` notation for private class members.
Require Kebab Case Filename	Require kebab-case file names for TypeScript files.
Require Naming Convention	Enforce context-aware naming conventions for identifiers.
Require Node Protocol	Require `node:` protocol when importing Node.js built-in modules.
Require Undefined Init	Require `= undefined` when declaring uninitialized variables.
Switch Case Blocks	Require block-wrapped switch cases so declarations stay scoped per branch.

Formatting

Rule	Synopsis
No Complex Arrow Concise	Require block body on complex concise arrows.
No Multiline Strings	Use `[].join()` instead of multiline string content.
No Raw Text in Code	Ban unwrapped text inside `<code>` elements to prevent MDX parsing issues.
No Ternary in Template Literal	Extract ternary expressions out of template literal interpolation slots.
Require Import Order	Require 6-group import ordering with blank line separation.
Require Multiline Condition Groups	Require expanded formatting for parenthesized groups in mixed-operator logical expressions.
Require Multiline Conditions	Require multiline format when a logical expression exceeds the inline operand limit.
Require Padding Lines	Require blank lines between specific statement patterns for readability.
Require Ternary Parens	Require parenthesized condition in ternaries.

JSDoc

Rule	Synopsis
Require JSDoc Body	Require a body paragraph in JSDoc blocks that explains why the declaration exists.
Require JSDoc Hierarchy	Require summary lines to follow hierarchy chain from file path.
Require JSDoc Param Alignment	Require vertical alignment of `@param` types, names, and dashes.
Require JSDoc Param Name	Require `@param` descriptions to match param name.
Require JSDoc Presence	Require a leading JSDoc block on every documentable symbol.
Require JSDoc Private	Require `@private` tag for private class members.
Require JSDoc Returns	Require every `@returns` tag to contain only a type in braces.
Require JSDoc Since	Require a valid `@since` tag (a released version or `UNRELEASED`) in every JSDoc block.
Require JSDoc Tag Order	Require JSDoc tags to follow canonical order with one blank line between groups.

Nova

Rule	Synopsis
No Logger.dev	Flag `Logger.dev` calls so dev-only logging gets caught before production.

Patterns

Rule	Synopsis
No Assign Then Return	Return expressions directly instead of assigning to an intermediate variable.
No Await In Loop	Disallow await inside loops so sequential calls are parallelized.
No Boolean Var For If	Disallow extracting multi-condition boolean into a variable used once in the next `if`.
No Bracket Assignment	Use `Reflect.set()` instead of bracket notation assignment.
No Bracket Method Call	Use dot notation to call methods instead of bracket notation with static keys.
No Template Curly in String	Catch `${...}` in regular strings so missing backticks are found early.
No Use Before Define	Catch identifiers used before declaration so read order matches definition order.

Regex

Rule	Synopsis
No Regex Literal Flags	Ban flags on regex literals so callers add flags at the call site.
No Regex Literals	Ban inline regex literals so patterns are centralized in a shared file.

Safety

Rule	Synopsis
No Script URL	Block `javascript:` URLs in string literals.

Syntax

Rule	Synopsis
No Destructuring	Ban destructuring in callbacks, loops, functions, declarations, assignments.
No Numeric Literals	Use `parseInt()` with an explicit base instead of binary, octal, or hex literals.
No Optional Chaining	Ban the `?.` operator so null/undefined checks are explicit.
No Rest Params	Ban rest parameters so function signatures list parameters explicitly.

TypeScript

Rule	Synopsis
No Catch Unknown Annotation	Remove redundant `: unknown` annotations from catch clause variables.
No Explicit Any	Disallow the `any` type in favor of `unknown` or specific types.
No Inline Type Annotation	Require named type aliases instead of inline type annotations in code files.
No Shared Type Import	Prevent code files from importing shared type files directly.
Require Bracket Property Access	Require bracket notation instead of dot notation on project-defined objects.
Require Type Naming	Require type alias names to start with the class name prefix from file path.

Vitest Conformance Suites

Importable test suites that each scan across multiple files to hold your project's docs and types to the same conventions Nova enforces on itself — frontmatter, internal links, table formatting, glossary references, and type declarations.

Unlike ESLint rules, which check one file at a time, each Vitest suite walks an entire directory tree and reports every violation in a single test run.

info

Each suite imports describe and it from Vitest. Your project must already use Vitest as its test runner.

Each test file collapses to a short import-and-invoke. The suite logic lives in the package; your wrapper supplies the configuration.

src/tests/frontmatter.test.ts

import { registerFrontmatterSuite } from '@cbnventures/nova/rules/vitest';
import * as vitest from 'vitest';

registerFrontmatterSuite({
  vitest,
  enable: 'all',
  requiredFields: ['id', 'title', 'description', 'keywords', 'tags'],
});

Enable API

Every register function takes an enable field that selects which checks run. The field is required so a bare call is a compile error, never a silent no-op.

enable: 'all' runs every check the suite defines, including checks added in future versions.
enable: ['key-one', 'key-two'] runs exactly the listed checks and ignores the rest.

src/tests/link.test.ts

import { registerLinkSuite } from '@cbnventures/nova/rules/vitest';
import * as vitest from 'vitest';

// Run a frozen subset instead of every check.
registerLinkSuite({
  vitest,
  enable: [
    'link-internal-doc-target-exists',
    'link-self-anchor-exists',
  ],
});

Suites

Suite	Synopsis
Dotenv	Enforce double-quoted values in .env and .env.sample files.
Frontmatter	Require valid frontmatter fields on every Markdown and MDX content file.
Link	Verify internal documentation links and anchors resolve to real targets.
Markdown Table	Require tables to match canonical `MarkdownTable` output.
Terminology	Validate `<Terminology>` components against a glossary page.
Type Declarations	Audit `.d.ts` mirror files against their sources for structure, order, and naming.

Using Nova presets? See Presets for composable ESLint and TSConfig layers.