Editor integration

Before setting up your editor, see Project setup on how to configure clj-kondo for your project. TL;DR: this involves creating a .clj-kondo directory in the root of your project.

Emacs

For integrating with Emacs, see flycheck-clj-kondo.

For Spacemacs, check here.

Visual Studio Code

In Visual Studio Code, go to Preferences > Extensions. Search for 'clojure lint' and select the 'Clojure Lint' extension by @marcomorain. Click 'install'. That's it.

Atom

Atom requires clj-kondo to be on your $PATH. In Atom, there are a few ways to install:

1. apm install linter-kondo linter linter-ui-default intentions busy-signal
2. Install from the Atom package page.
3. From inside Atom, go to Preferences > Extensions. Search for "linter-kondo" and click "Install" on the extension.

Vim / Neovim

ALE

This section is for Vim 8+ or Neovim.

1. Install ALE using your favorite plugin manager. This already has in-built support for clj-kondo.

2. In your .vimrc, add:

   let g:ale_linters = {'clojure': ['clj-kondo']}
   

   to only have clj-kondo as the linter.

   To enable both clj-kondo and joker, add:

   let g:ale_linters = {'clojure': ['clj-kondo', 'joker']}
   

3. Reload your .vimrc and it should start working.

Vanilla way

Create this file in ~/.config/nvim/compiler/clj-kondo.vim or ~/.vim/compiler/clj-kondo.vim.

if exists("current_compiler")
  finish
endif
let current_compiler="clj-kondo"

if exists(":CompilerSet") != 2
  command -nargs=* CompilerSet setlocal <args>
endif

CompilerSet errorformat=%f:%l:%c:\ Parse\ %t%*[^:]:\ %m,%f:%l:%c:\ %t%*[^:]:\ %m
CompilerSet makeprg=clj-kondo\ --lint\ %

Usage

You can populate the quickfix list like so:

:compiler clj-kondo
:make

See romainl's vanilla linting for how to automatically execute linting and automatically open the quickfix.

If you have vim-dispatch installed, you can use this command to be both async and more convenient:

:Dispatch -compiler=clj-kondo

IntelliJ IDEA

This section assumes that you are already using Cursive.

1. Install the File Watchers plugin.

Repeat the below steps for the file types Clojure (.clj), ClojureScript (.cljs) and CLJC (.cljc).

2. Under Preferences / Tools / File Watchers click + and choose the <custom> template.
3. Choose a name. E.g. clj-kondo <filetype> (where <filetype> is one of Clojure, ClojureScript or CLJC).
4. In the File type field, choose the correct filetype.
5. Scope: Current file
6. In the Program field, type clj-kondo.
7. In the Arguments field, type --lint $FilePath$ --cache.
   You may use a custom config E.g --lint $FilePath$ --cache --config "{:lint-as {manifold.deferred/let-flow clojure.core/let}}".
8. In the Working directory field, type $FileDir$.
9. Enable Create output file from stdout
10. Show console: Never
11. In output filters put $FILE_PATH$:$LINE$:$COLUMN$: $MESSAGE$.
12. Click ok and under the newly created file-watcher, change level to Global - this will enable the watcher in all future projects.

Spacemacs

Ensure that:

1. syntax-checking is present in dotspacemacs-configuration-layers.
2. clj-kondo is available on PATH.

In the .spacemacs file:

When using the stable master branch:

1. In dotspacemacs-additional-packages add flycheck-clj-kondo.

2. In the dotspacemacs/user-config function add the following:

   (use-package clojure-mode
    :ensure t
    :config
    (require 'flycheck-clj-kondo))
   

To install it alongside joker:

1. In dotspacemacs-additional-packages add flycheck-clj-kondo and flycheck-joker.

2. In the dotspacemacs/user-config function add the following:

   (use-package clojure-mode
    :ensure t
    :config
    (require 'flycheck-joker)
    (require 'flycheck-clj-kondo)
    (dolist (checker '(clj-kondo-clj clj-kondo-cljs clj-kondo-cljc clj-kondo-edn))
      (setq flycheck-checkers (cons checker (delq checker flycheck-checkers))))
    (dolist (checkers '((clj-kondo-clj . clojure-joker)
                        (clj-kondo-cljs . clojurescript-joker)
                        (clj-kondo-cljc . clojure-joker)
                        (clj-kondo-edn . edn-joker)))
      (flycheck-add-next-checker (car checkers) (cons 'error (cdr checkers)))))
   

If using the develop branch, clj-kondo is available as a part of the standard clojure layer. This will become the way to install in the next stable release of spacemacs.

To enable it:

1. Ensure the clojure layer is in the dotspacemacs-configuration-layers.
2. Add a variable called clojure-enable-linters with the value 'clj-kondo.

It should look like this:

dotspacemacs-configuration-layers
'(...
    (clojure :variables
             clojure-enable-linters 'clj-kondo)
 )

Reload the config to enable clj-kondo.