renovate/docs/development/style-guide.md

Renovate style guide

This document describes the correct style for user-facing text in the:

• Documentation
• Error and debug messages
• Texts created by the bot in issues and pull requests

Use American English

Set your spell checker to the correct language.

Guidelines:

• Use ize instead of ise in words like customize and analyze
• Drop the British u in words like behavior

One sentence per line

In Markdown files, use one sentence per line. Like this:

First sentence on one line.
Second sentence on a new line.
And so on.

Avoid contractions/possessives

Avoid:

don't
won't
doesn't
shouldn't
wouldn't
manager's
file's

Do:

do not
will not
does not
should not
would not

Avoid possessives like manager's or file's, if needed rewrite the sentence.

Avoid manually ordering numbered lists

Avoid:

1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third item

Do:

1. First item
1. Second item
1. Third item

Avoid punctuation at the end of list items

In Markdown files, avoid punctuation at the end of a list item. Like this:

- List item, no punctuation at the end

Use plain language

Follow the Plain language guidelines.

Correct name for the GitHub app

Refer to the GitHub app version of Renovate as "the Mend Renovate app".