Q: How to use an external dictionary? Having trouble getting @cspell/dict-es-es to work.

[Jason3S]

Originally posted by @guidemetothemoon in #181 (comment)

I'm facing an issue with making additional dictionaries to work with GH action and in search of documentation I came across this issue. Can you please point out what I may be doing wrong here? Thanks in advance!

My workflow looks like this:

    - name: Install Node
      uses: actions/setup-node@v3
      with:
        node-version: 18
    
    - run: npm install -g @cspell/dict-es-es
    
    - name: Validate spelling
      uses: streetsidesoftware/cspell-action@v5.4.0
      with:
        config: 'cspell.json'
        files: '**/*.md'
        inline: 'error'
        strict: true        
        incremental_files_only: true

cspell.json looks like this:

{
    "version": "0.2",
    "import": ["@cspell/dict-es-es/cspell-ext.json"],
    "language": "en,es",
----------  OMITTED ---------
}

I'm getting the following error when executing with this configuration:

Run streetsidesoftware/cspell-action@v5.4.0
  with:
    config: cspell.json
    files: **/*.md
    inline: error
    strict: true
    incremental_files_only: true
    github_token: ***
    verbose: false
    check_dot_files: explicit
cspell-action
Pull Request
Fetch file names in commits: 6.242s
Error: Configuration
        name: Error
        msg: Failed to resolve file: "@cspell/dict-es-es/cspell-ext.json"
        stack:
Error: Failed to resolve file: "@cspell/dict-es-es/cspell-ext.json"
    at ConfigLoaderInternal.resolveFilename (/home/runner/work/_actions/streetsidesoftware/cspell-action/v5.4.0/action/lib/main_root.js:67131:33)
    at async Promise.all (index 0)
    at async ConfigLoaderInternal._mergeConfigFileWithImports (/home/runner/work/_actions/streetsidesoftware/cspell-action/v5.4.0/action/lib/main_root.js:67044:23)
    at async onReadyFixUp (/home/runner/work/_actions/streetsidesoftware/cspell-action/v5.4.0/action/lib/main_root.js:67002:24)
    at async readConfig (/home/runner/work/_actions/streetsidesoftware/cspell-action/v5.4.0/action/lib/main_root.js:75548:21)
    at async run2 (/home/runner/work/_actions/streetsidesoftware/cspell-action/v5.4.0/action/lib/main_root.js:76329:24)
    at async runLint (/home/runner/work/_actions/streetsidesoftware/cspell-action/v5.4.0/action/lib/main_root.js:76100:22)
    at async lint2 (/home/runner/work/_actions/streetsidesoftware/cspell-action/v5.4.0/action/lib/main_root.js:76701:3)
    at async checkSpelling (/home/runner/work/_actions/streetsidesoftware/cspell-action/v5.4.0/action/lib/main_root.js:76739:3)
    at async action (/home/runner/work/_actions/streetsidesoftware/cspell-action/v5.4.0/action/lib/main_root.js:76807:18)
        
Files checked: 0, Issues found: 0 in 0 files.
Done.

Originally posted by @guidemetothemoon in #181 (comment)

[Jason3S]

@guidemetothemoon,

The action (running Node 20) doesn't have access to the global node repository of the workflow. Is NodeJS part of your normal workflow, in other words, do you already have a package.json file in the root directory?

It is necessary for the node_modules directory to be local.

Adding CSpell dictionaries to a non-Node environment

This is a way to do it without polluting the root of your repo with Node related files.

Folder Layout

repo
|- cspell.json
|- ./cspell
   |- cspell.json
   |- package.json
   |- node_modules <- created by `npm install`

cspell.json

{
  "import": ["./.cspell/cspell.json"],
  // the rest
}

.cspell/cspell.json

{
  "import": ["@cspell/dict-es-es/cspell-ext.json"]
}

.cspell/package.json

{
  "name": "@internal/cspell",
  "private": true,
  "devDependencies": {
    "@cspell/dict-es-es": "^2.3.1"
  }
}

In the workflow:

    - name: Checkout
      uses: actions/checkout@v4

    - name: Install Node
      uses: actions/setup-node@v3
      with:
        node-version: 18
    
    - run: |
        cd .cspell 
        npm install
    
    - name: Validate spelling
      uses: streetsidesoftware/cspell-action@v5.4.0
      with:
        config: 'cspell.json'
        files: '**/*.md'
        inline: 'error'
        strict: true        
        incremental_files_only: true

[guidemetothemoon]

Thank you so much for the details on this @Jason3S ! I will go through it this week and update you here on the outcome.