tld validate

tld validate is your quality gate. It checks the workspace structure, verifies that referenced symbols still exist in source, and flags diagrams whose metadata is older than the file’s last Git commit.

tld validate

What it catches

• Missing elements: a connector references an element that doesn’t exist
• Duplicate refs: two elements with the same key
• Invalid types: an element kind that isn’t recognized
• Circular parent references: a diagram that’s its own ancestor
• Broken view references: connectors pointing to views that don’t exist
• Stale symbols: an element points at a file or symbol that moved or disappeared
• Outdated diagrams: metadata is older than the source’s latest commit

A clean workspace prints a summary:

✓ Workspace valid: 42 elements, 12 views, 35 connectors

Strictness levels

The validation level controls how strict checks are. Set it globally or override per run:

tld validate --strictness 1   # Minimal
tld validate --strictness 2   # Standard (default)
tld validate --strictness 3   # Strict — checks labels, descriptions, naming
tld validate --strictness 3 --verbose

Architectural warnings

After structural validation, tld validate runs the architectural linter and prints a summary grouped by rule code:

Architectural Warnings (Level 2: Standard)

CODE     RULE              VIOLATIONS
ARC001   Isolated Object   1
ARC002   High Density      1

Pass a rule code to see its full detail, including every violating element and how to fix it:

tld validate ARC001

Known codes: ARC001–ARC007, ARC101–ARC103, ARC201–ARC203. See Linting Rules for what each one means.

Outdated diagrams in CI

Outdated diagrams are warnings by default. In CI, make them fail the build:

tld validate --strict

--strict exits non-zero when any diagram is outdated, so stale architecture docs break the build instead of slipping through.

Suppressing rules

Suppress specific rule codes in workspace config:

.tld/.tld.yaml

validation:
  exclude_rules: [ARC002]

Flags

Flag	Default	What it does
--strictness	config / 2	Override validation level [1-3]
-v, --verbose	false	Show full architectural warning output
--strict	false	Exit non-zero when outdated diagrams are detected