Install alexjs with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• alex

Project history

The official website and README describe alex as a tool that flags gender-favoring, polarizing, race-related, ableist, profane, or otherwise unequal phrasing and suggests alternatives. It reads plain text, Markdown, MDX, and HTML, and exposes both a CLI and JavaScript APIs.

The README records preliminary work in 2015, Titus Wormer as author, and an origin story crediting a raised problem and Sindre Sorhus's inspiration. The alexjs.com page carries a 2015 publication date and presents an online demo, CLI examples, and integrations.

Technically, alex composes existing natural-language processing packages: the README points users to `retext-equality` and `retext-profanities` for the rules and uses VFile messages as the API result shape. That places it squarely inside the unified/retext package family.

Adoption history

alex's official README lists integrations for Sublime, Gulp, Slack, Ember, Probot, GitHub Actions, Vim, browser extensions, Contentful, Figma, and VS Code. The official site also lists earlier editor and workflow integrations.

The supplied package facts show unusually broad distribution for a Node writing tool: Homebrew as `alexjs`, and distro packages as `alex` in apk, Debian, Fedora, MacPorts, Nix, Arch, Ubuntu, and openSUSE. That breadth reflects a CLI useful in documentation repos, CI checks, and editorial workflows.

How it is used

Typical CLI usage is `alex example.md` or `alex .`, with warnings reported by source position, rule id, and suggested wording. The README also documents Markdown comments for inline disables and enables.

Configuration can live in `.alexrc`, `.alexrc.yml`, `.alexrc.yaml`, `.alexrc.js`, or an `alex` field in `package.json`; directory scanning can be controlled with `.alexignore`. API users call functions such as `markdown`, `mdx`, `html`, or `text` and inspect returned VFile messages.

Why package nerds care

alex is package-nerd significant because it helped make inclusive-language checking feel like linting: install a CLI, add a dotfile, wire it into CI, and treat prose issues like structured diagnostics.

It also shows why package naming matters. The upstream project and executable are `alex`, while Homebrew packages it as `alexjs`, likely to avoid name ambiguity in a global formula namespace.

Timeline

• 2015: Preliminary work and publication date recorded by official README and alexjs.com metadata.
• 2015: Launch attracted social and press attention according to the README origin story.
• 2015 onward: Editor, build-tool, chat, GitHub, and browser integrations accumulated around the CLI.
• Current README: alex supports plain text, Markdown, MDX, and HTML inputs with CLI and JavaScript APIs.

Related projects

• The official README names retext-equality and retext-profanities as rule sources and VFile as the diagnostics container.
• alex sits near prose linters, markdown tooling, and editor/CI lint integrations rather than conventional grammar checkers.

Sources

• https://alexjs.com
• https://github.com/get-alex/alex#readme
• source_facts.package-manager