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Installation and first check

Qual is distributed as a native Rust executable. The PyPI package installs that executable; using it does not require Manim, LaTeX, or a Python runtime.

Install

uv tool install qual-manim

pipx install qual-manim

cargo install qual --locked

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf \
  https://github.com/Poietra/qual/releases/latest/download/qual-installer.sh | sh

Checksummed archives for Linux, macOS, and Windows are available from the latest GitHub release.

Run your first check

From a Manim project:

qual check .

In a terminal, Qual shows source context, an explanation, and a summary. When stdout is redirected it uses a stable one-line format. Select a format explicitly when another tool consumes the result:

qual check . --format concise
qual check . --format json
qual check . --format sarif
qual check . --format github

Exit codes are designed for CI:

Code Meaning
0 No reported diagnostic reaches fail-level
1 At least one reported diagnostic reaches fail-level
2 Command-line, configuration, input, or internal error

Understand a finding

✖ MLC102 scenes/demo.py:12:19

  `square.shift(...)` returns the mobject itself, not an Animation.
  Use `square.animate.shift(...)` inside `Scene.play()`.

The rule ID is stable public vocabulary. Open its full documentation with:

qual explain MLC102

Every finding has two independent dimensions:

  • severity — error, warning, or info;
  • confidence — certain, high, medium, or low.

The default confidence threshold is conservative. If a value cannot be resolved, Qual records Unknown and avoids upgrading the uncertainty into a high-confidence error.

Next steps