Release 0.8.0 of Spellcheck (GitHub) Action
Tags: github, action, release
Published: 2021-01-25 18:46:17

---
title: Release 0.8.0 of Spellcheck (GitHub) Action
published: true
description: a feature release with improved Markdown capabilities
tags: github, action, release
//cover_image: https://direct_url_to_image.jpg
---
[Spellcheck Action](https://github.com/marketplace/actions/github-spellcheck-action) is a GitHub Action for checking the spelling of your Markdown, Python or plain text contents of your GitHub repository.

It is based on [PySpelling][pyspelling] a highly customizable Python implementation for use of `aspell` or `hunspell`.

Recently the action was updated to release 0.8.0 introducing the capability of customizing the configuration for working with the Markdown parsing.

The Markdown parsing is based on the [Python Markdown][markdown] project, used by [PySpelling][pyspelling] allows for configuration of the Markdown handling using the `[pymdown-extensions]` authored by the author of [PySpelling][pyspelling].

> pause

The funny thing about a GitHub Action like this one is that the action itself is actually just an integration between an existing piece of software and your GitHub repository. This mean that often you are at the _mercy_ of the author of the core software you are using.

Luckly the author of [PySpelling][pyspelling] - facelessuser is keeping an eye on the Spellcheck Action repository for which I am the maintainer and he helps out whenever he can.

So when somebody reported an issue with a diagnostic like:

`markdown: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'end'`, please see [issue #28](https://github.com/rojopolis/spellcheck-github-actions/issues/28) for all details

I was glad that facelessuser, stepped in an explained the issue and provided a solution.

Then I was not slow to:

- Add the missing components to the Docker image
- Add the diagnostic message to the documentation
- Ship a release 0.8.0 with the capability to configure the Markdown parts using the the [`pymdown-extensions`][pymdownext]

Spellcheck Action now supports the use of the [`pymdown-extensions`][pymdownext], so for example if your wanted to use the `superfences` extension, you could configure it as follows:

```yaml
  - pyspelling.filters.markdown:
      markdown_extensions:
      - pymdownx.superfences:
```

Current Spellcheck Action support the following extensions (_in alphabetical order_), which are now installed on the Docker image.

- Arithmatex
- B64
- BetterEm
- Caret
- Critic
- Details
- Emoji
- EscapeAll
- Extra
- Highlight
- InlineHilite
- Keys
- MagicLink
- Mark
- PathConverter
- ProgressBar
- SaneHeaders
- SmartSymbols
- Snippets
- StripHTML
- SuperFences
- Tabbed
- Tasklist
- Tilde

I do not know any of these extensions so I would refer to [the documentation](https://facelessuser.github.io/pymdown-extensions/) for the extensions for more details.

And currently only the case of use of `superfences` has been demonstrated by the issue mentioned above and outlined in this post.

Many thanks to:

- facelessuser for helping out and always providing actionable suggestions improving the Spellcheck Action
- and rfay for reporting the issue

[pyspelling]: https://facelessuser.github.io/pyspelling/
[markdown]: https://pypi.org/project/Markdown/
[pymdownext]: https://pypi.org/project/pymdown-extensions/