tally

README

tally

A fast, configurable linter for Dockerfiles and Containerfiles.

Supported Rules

tally integrates rules from multiple sources:

Source	Rules	Description
BuildKit	15+ rules	Docker's official Dockerfile checks (automatically captured)
tally	3 rules	Custom rules including secret detection with gitleaks
Hadolint	2 rules	Shell best practices (expanding)

See RULES.md for the complete rules reference.

Installation

NPM

npm install -g @contino/tally

PyPI

pip install tally-cli

RubyGems

gem install tally-cli

Go

go install github.com/tinovyatkin/tally@latest

From Source

git clone https://github.com/tinovyatkin/tally.git
cd tally
go build .

Usage

# Check a Dockerfile
tally check Dockerfile

# Check all Dockerfiles in current directory (recursive)
tally check .

# Check with glob patterns
tally check "**/*.Dockerfile"

# Exclude patterns
tally check --exclude "vendor/*" --exclude "test/*" .

# Check with max lines limit
tally check --max-lines 100 Dockerfile

# Output as JSON
tally check --format json Dockerfile

# Check multiple files
tally check Dockerfile.dev Dockerfile.prod

# Enable context-aware rules (e.g., copy-ignored-file)
tally check --context . Dockerfile

File Discovery

When given a directory, tally recursively searches for Dockerfiles using these default patterns:

• Dockerfile
• Dockerfile.* (e.g., Dockerfile.dev, Dockerfile.prod)
• *.Dockerfile (e.g., api.Dockerfile, frontend.Dockerfile)
• Containerfile (Podman convention)
• Containerfile.*
• *.Containerfile

Use --exclude to filter out unwanted files:

# Exclude vendor and test directories
tally check --exclude "vendor/*" --exclude "test/*" .

# Exclude all .bak files
tally check --exclude "*.bak" .

Rules Overview

For the complete list of all supported rules, see RULES.md.

Context-Aware Rules

Some rules require build context awareness. Enable them with the --context flag:

# Enable context-aware rules
tally check --context . Dockerfile

copy-ignored-file: Detects when COPY or ADD commands reference files that would be excluded by .dockerignore. This helps catch mistakes where files are copied but won't actually be included in the build.

# .dockerignore contains: *.log

# This will trigger a warning:
COPY app.log /app/  # File matches .dockerignore pattern

# Heredoc sources are exempt (they're inline, not from context):
COPY <<EOF /app/config.txt
inline content
EOF

Ignoring Violations

You can suppress specific violations using inline comment directives.

Next-Line Directives

Suppress violations on the next line:

# tally ignore=StageNameCasing
FROM alpine AS Build

Global Directives

Suppress violations throughout the entire file:

# tally global ignore=max-lines
FROM alpine
# ... rest of file is not checked for max-lines

Multiple Rules

Suppress multiple rules with comma-separated values:

# tally ignore=StageNameCasing,DL3006
FROM Ubuntu AS Build

Adding Reasons

Document why a rule is being ignored using ;reason= (BuildKit-style separator):

# tally ignore=DL3006;reason=Using older base image for compatibility
FROM ubuntu:16.04

# tally global ignore=max-lines;reason=Generated file, size is expected
FROM alpine

# check=skip=StageNameCasing;reason=Legacy naming convention
FROM alpine AS Build

Use --require-reason to enforce that all ignore directives include an explanation:

tally check --require-reason Dockerfile

Note: The ;reason= syntax is a tally extension that works with all directive formats. BuildKit silently ignores the reason option.

Migration Compatibility

tally supports directive formats from other linters for easy migration:

# hadolint ignore=DL3006
FROM ubuntu

# hadolint global ignore=DL3008
FROM alpine

# check=skip=StageNameCasing
FROM alpine AS Build

Suppressing All Rules

Use all to suppress all rules on a line:

# tally ignore=all
FROM Ubuntu AS Build

CLI Options

Flag	Description
--no-inline-directives	Disable processing of inline ignore directives
--warn-unused-directives	Warn about directives that don't suppress any violations
--require-reason	Warn about ignore directives without reason= explanation

Configuration

Inline directive behavior can be configured in .tally.toml:

[inline-directives]
enabled = true        # Process inline directives (default: true)
warn-unused = false   # Warn about unused directives (default: false)
validate-rules = false # Warn about unknown rule codes (default: false)
require-reason = false # Require reason= on all ignore directives (default: false)

Configuration

tally supports configuration via TOML config files, environment variables, and CLI flags.

Config File

Create a .tally.toml or tally.toml file in your project:

[output]
format = "text"          # text, json, sarif, github-actions, markdown
path = "stdout"          # stdout, stderr, or file path
show-source = true       # Show source code snippets
fail-level = "style"     # Minimum severity for exit code 1

# Rule selection (Ruff-style)
[rules]
include = ["buildkit/*", "tally/*"]           # Enable rules by namespace or specific rule
exclude = ["buildkit/MaintainerDeprecated"]   # Disable specific rules

# Per-rule configuration (severity, options)
[rules.tally.max-lines]
severity = "error"
max = 500
skip-blank-lines = true
skip-comments = true

[rules.buildkit.StageNameCasing]
severity = "info"         # Downgrade severity

[rules.hadolint.DL3026]
severity = "warning"
trusted-registries = ["docker.io", "gcr.io"]

Config File Discovery

tally uses cascading config discovery similar to Ruff:

1. Starting from the Dockerfile's directory, walks up the filesystem
2. Stops at the first .tally.toml or tally.toml found
3. Uses that config (no merging with parent configs)

This allows monorepo setups with per-directory configurations.

Priority Order

Configuration sources are applied in this order (highest priority first):

1. CLI flags (--max-lines 100)
2. Environment variables (TALLY_RULES_MAX_LINES_MAX=100)
3. Config file (.tally.toml or tally.toml)
4. Built-in defaults

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
TALLY_OUTPUT_FORMAT	Output format (text, json, sarif, github-actions, markdown)
TALLY_OUTPUT_PATH	Output destination (stdout, stderr, or file path)
TALLY_OUTPUT_SHOW_SOURCE	Show source snippets (true/false)
TALLY_OUTPUT_FAIL_LEVEL	Minimum severity for non-zero exit
NO_COLOR	Disable colored output (standard env var)
TALLY_EXCLUDE	Glob pattern(s) to exclude files (comma-separated)
TALLY_CONTEXT	Build context directory for context-aware rules
TALLY_RULES_MAX_LINES_MAX	Maximum lines allowed
TALLY_RULES_MAX_LINES_SKIP_BLANK_LINES	Exclude blank lines (true/false)
TALLY_RULES_MAX_LINES_SKIP_COMMENTS	Exclude comments (true/false)
TALLY_NO_INLINE_DIRECTIVES	Disable inline directive processing (true/false)
TALLY_INLINE_DIRECTIVES_WARN_UNUSED	Warn about unused directives (true/false)
TALLY_INLINE_DIRECTIVES_REQUIRE_REASON	Require reason= on ignore directives (true/false)

CLI Flags

# Specify config file explicitly
tally check --config /path/to/.tally.toml Dockerfile

# Override max-lines from config
tally check --max-lines 200 Dockerfile

# Exclude blank lines and comments from count
tally check --max-lines 100 --skip-blank-lines --skip-comments Dockerfile

Output Formats

tally supports multiple output formats for different use cases.

Text (default)

Human-readable output with colors and source code snippets:

tally check Dockerfile

WARNING: StageNameCasing - https://docs.docker.com/go/dockerfile/rule/stage-name-casing/
Stage name 'Builder' should be lowercase

Dockerfile:2
────────────────────
   1 │ FROM alpine
>>>2 │ FROM ubuntu AS Builder
   3 │ RUN echo "hello"
────────────────────

JSON

Machine-readable format with summary statistics and scan metadata:

tally check --format json Dockerfile

The JSON output includes:

• files: Array of files with their violations
• summary: Aggregate statistics (total, errors, warnings, etc.)
• files_scanned: Total number of files scanned
• rules_enabled: Number of active rules (with DefaultSeverity != "off")

{
  "files": [
    {
      "file": "Dockerfile",
      "violations": [
        {
          "location": {
            "file": "Dockerfile",
            "start": { "line": 2, "column": 0 }
          },
          "rule": "StageNameCasing",
          "message": "Stage name 'Builder' should be lowercase",
          "severity": "warning",
          "docUrl": "https://docs.docker.com/go/dockerfile/rule/stage-name-casing/"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "summary": {
    "total": 1,
    "errors": 0,
    "warnings": 1,
    "info": 0,
    "style": 0,
    "files": 1
  },
  "files_scanned": 1,
  "rules_enabled": 7
}

SARIF

Static Analysis Results Interchange Format for CI/CD integration with GitHub Code Scanning, Azure DevOps, and other tools:

tally check --format sarif Dockerfile > results.sarif

GitHub Actions

Native GitHub Actions workflow command format for inline annotations:

tally check --format github-actions Dockerfile

::warning file=Dockerfile,line=2,title=StageNameCasing::Stage name 'Builder' should be lowercase

Markdown

Concise Markdown tables optimized for AI agents and token efficiency:

tally check --format markdown Dockerfile

**2 issues** in `Dockerfile`

| Line | Issue |
|------|-------|
| 10 | ❌ Use absolute WORKDIR |
| 2 | ⚠️ Stage name 'Builder' should be lowercase |

Features:

• Summary upfront with issue counts
• Sorted by severity (errors first)
• Emoji indicators: ❌ error, ⚠️ warning, ℹ️ info, 💅 style
• No rule codes or doc URLs (token-efficient)
• Multi-file support with File column when needed

Output Options

Flag	Description
--format, -f	Output format: text, json, sarif, github-actions, markdown
--output, -o	Output destination: stdout, stderr, or file path
--no-color	Disable colored output (also respects NO_COLOR env var)
--show-source	Show source code snippets (default: true)
--hide-source	Hide source code snippets

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	No violations (or below --fail-level threshold)
1	Violations found at or above --fail-level
2	Parse or configuration error

Fail Level

Control which severity levels cause a non-zero exit code:

# Fail only on errors (ignore warnings)
tally check --fail-level error Dockerfile

# Never fail (useful for CI reporting without blocking)
tally check --fail-level none --format sarif Dockerfile > results.sarif

# Fail on any violation including style issues (default behavior)
tally check --fail-level style Dockerfile

Available levels (from most to least severe): error, warning, info, style (default), none

Development

Running Tests

# Run all tests
make test

# Run linting
make lint

# Run copy/paste detection (CPD)
make cpd

Code Quality

This project uses:

• golangci-lint for Go linting
• PMD CPD for copy/paste detection (minimum 100 tokens)

Copy/paste detection runs automatically in CI and helps identify duplicate code patterns.

Contributing

See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines.

License

Apache-2.0