Lint Tonel Files

Validate Tonel .st files for Smalltalk best practices before importing to Pharo.

When to Use

• Before every /st-import — lint catches issues that would silently corrupt the image
• After editing .st files — confirm no style regressions
• When import fails with unexpected behavior — lint may reveal the root cause

Step 1: Check Meta Files (manual — MCP cannot validate these)

Before linting, verify required Tonel meta files exist:

File	Location	Required
.project	repo root	✅
src/.properties	src/ directory	✅
package.st	each package directory	✅

If any are missing, warn the user, suggest /st-setup-project, and continue linting — lint results are still useful even when meta files are absent, since the linter operates on .st file syntax independently.

Expected src/.properties content:

{
	#format : #tonel
}

Step 2: Collect .st Files

Resolve the target to a list of absolute paths:

• Single file (src/MyPackage/MyClass.st): use directly, skip if it is package.st
• Package directory (src/MyPackage): Glob **/*.st, exclude package.st
• src root (src): Glob **/*.st across all packages, exclude package.st

Always convert to absolute paths before passing to the MCP tool.

Step 3: Lint Each File

Call mcp__smalltalk-validator__lint_tonel_smalltalk_from_file with the absolute path, one file at a time.

Step 4: Report Results

Show a summary per file:

src/MyPackage/MyClass.st — ✅ clean
src/MyPackage/AnotherClass.st — ⚠️ 2 warnings
  • [warning] Method #doSomething has no comment
  • [warning] Temporary variable 'x' shadows outer scope
src/MyPackage/BrokenClass.st — ❌ 1 error
  • [error] Syntax error near ']'

Exit status semantics:

Result	Meaning	Action
0 — clean	No issues	Proceed to import
1 — warnings only	Style issues	Proceed to import, consider fixing
2 — errors found	Syntax/structural errors	Fix before importing

Interpreting Common Issues

Issue	Likely Cause	Fix
Syntax error near '...'	Unclosed bracket/paren, missing period	Check the indicated line
Method has no comment	Missing method comment	Add a brief comment
Temporary variable shadows outer scope	Variable name collision	Rename the temp var
Missing package.st	package.st not found	Create it: Package { #name : 'PkgName' }

Related Skills

• smalltalk-dev:st-setup-project — Create missing meta files
• smalltalk-dev:smalltalk-developer — Full Edit → Lint → Import → Test workflow