Unable to lint MDX files; mdx2vast not found

[anaxite]

Description

Vale recently added support for linting MDX files. Linting MDX files requires the mdx2vast npm package to be installed and available on the system PATH.

When Vale VSCode executes Vale and mdx2vast is installed globally, Vale is unable to find mdx2vast:

:0:0: E100 [lintMDX] Runtime error mdx2vast not found Execution stopped with code 1.

However, running Vale standalone works correctly, finds mdx2vast, and lints the files.

Environment

VS Code

Version: 1.99.3
Commit: 17baf841131aa23349f217ca7c570c76ee87b957
Date: 2025-04-15T23:18:46.076Z
Electron: 34.3.2
ElectronBuildId: 11161073
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.18.3
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100

Extension

Vale VSCode version 0.30.0

[dosubot]

Hello @anaxite! I'm Dosu, a friendly bot here to help you solve bugs, answer questions, and navigate the world of contributions while you wait for a human maintainer. Let's tackle this together! 🚀

The issue you're experiencing with the Vale VSCode extension not finding the mdx2vast package, despite it being installed globally, might be related to how the extension configures the execution environment for external dependencies. The Vale VSCode extension sets up the execution environment for the Vale CLI by determining the file path for the Vale Language Server and handling platform-specific file permissions ^[1].

To resolve this issue, you can try the following steps:

1. Ensure mdx2vast is in the PATH: Verify that the global installation path of mdx2vast is included in your system's PATH environment variable. This ensures that any process, including the VSCode extension, can locate it.

2. VSCode Environment: Sometimes, VSCode might not inherit the system PATH correctly. You can try launching VSCode from a terminal where the PATH is correctly set. This can be done by opening a terminal, ensuring mdx2vast is accessible, and then starting VSCode from that terminal.

3. Check VSCode Settings: Ensure there are no specific settings in VSCode that might override or affect the PATH used by extensions. You can check the settings related to the terminal or shell environment.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, it might be necessary to look into how the extension handles external dependencies and whether there are any specific configurations required for npm packages.

To continue talking to Dosu, mention @dosu.

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[Ravlen]

@anaxite I think there's an issue with the latest version, I've just updated today and after restarting the extension with 0.30.0 it stopped working, with a similar though slightly different error:

• :0:0: filter '.Level in ["suggestion", "warning", "error"]' not found

Vale also continues to work fine from the CLI for me though. I've fixed it by reverting to 0.20.0. You can revert by right-clicking on it in the extensions list and selecting Install specific version .

cc @ChrisChinchilla @jdkato

[ChrisChinchilla]

@Ravlen yes as noted in the project read me there has been a major new version and likely some issues as it's quite hard to test. The read me also shows you how to downgrade if you do experience issues.

However your issue has nothing to do with mdx parsing as far as I know, so can you please move your comment to a new issue with as much background information as possible. Thanks!

[Ravlen]

Aha sorry, I've explained my issue over here: #63