substrate validate — Lint Boards, Members, and Policies - Substrate

Run substrate validate to lint your boards, members, and policies without starting a server or touching the database. Errors exit non-zero with a message naming the file and how to fix it. Warnings are advisory and exit 0. The command is designed to be dropped directly into a CI pipeline.

Usage

substrate validate

What It Catches

Errors — exit non-zero

These are anything that would cause a load to fail:

Malformed JSON
A board that doesn’t match the schema
A policy definition that doesn’t parse against its type
A from_group or to_group that resolves to no group
An enum field with no values
Duplicate ids

The error message names the file and describes how to fix it.

Warnings — advisory, exit 0

A guard whose from_group equals its to_group (can never fire on a real move)
A team[].member with no registry file
A binding groups id that is not a group on the board
A duplicate member id, or a malformed member file (warned and skipped)

Using in CI

- run: substrate validate

A corrupt substrate fails the build. Advisory warnings do not.

This is a structural lint, not a behavioural one. It cannot tell you that a guard names the wrong group or that a field path resolves to nothing — the definition is well-formed either way. Pair it with a live probe too: see Validate Gates.