Formatting

Format Tolk contracts with acton fmt to keep code style consistent across a project.

Format every Tolk file in the project

Run acton fmt from the project root:

acton fmt

If no paths are provided, Acton scans the resolved project root recursively and formats every .tolk file it finds.

Format only selected files or directories

Pass one or more paths to limit the scope:

acton fmt contracts scripts/deploy.tolk

Use this form when only part of the repository changed, or when a pre-commit hook should format staged contract files only.

Run the formatter from another directory

Point Acton to the project explicitly when the current shell is outside the project root:

acton fmt ../my-project

Use --manifest-path to also point to the Acton.toml manifest in a different project root:

acton fmt --manifest-path <PATH_TO_MANIFEST> ../my-project

Check formatting without rewriting files

Use --check to validate formatting in CI or before opening a pull request:

acton fmt --check

In this mode, Acton does not rewrite files. It prints a diff for each file that does not match the formatter output and exits with a non-zero status.

Formatting is clean when the command exits with status 0 and prints no diffs.

Adjust formatter defaults

Store formatter defaults in the [fmt] section of Acton.toml:

[fmt]
width = 100
ignore = ["contracts/generated/*.tolk"]
separate-import-groups = true

Use these fields for common formatting rules:

• width sets the maximum formatted line width
• ignore excludes files or directories during recursive traversal
• separate-import-groups inserts blank lines between import groups

Acton sorts imports automatically. The formatter groups imports in a fixed order, so manual sorting is usually unnecessary.

Troubleshooting

The formatter reports syntax errors

Fix the parse error first, then run the formatter again. Acton formats only valid Tolk source files.

A file was skipped unexpectedly

Check whether the file path matches [fmt].ignore or one of Acton's built-in excluded directories such as node_modules, .git, target, or .acton.

CI fails on formatting

Run acton fmt locally, commit the rewritten .tolk files, and rerun the pipeline. For CI examples, see CI setup.

See also

• acton fmt command reference
• Acton.toml reference