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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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Prettier Has a Free Code Formatter — End Style Debates Forever

#javascript #devtools #productivity #webdev

Prettier formats your code automatically. No more arguing about tabs vs spaces, semicolons, or line length. Save the file, it's formatted.

The Problem Prettier Solves

Code review comment: 'Add a trailing comma here.'
Code review comment: 'Remove the extra newline.'
Code review comment: 'Use single quotes.'

These comments waste time. Prettier eliminates ALL of them by formatting code to a consistent style automatically.

What You Get for Free

Opinionated formatting — few options, consistent output
20+ languages: JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS, HTML, JSON, Markdown, YAML, GraphQL, and more
Editor integration — format on save in VS Code, WebStorm, Vim, Emacs
CI integration — prettier --check fails if code isn't formatted
Git hooks — format only changed files with lint-staged

Quick Start 

npm i -D prettier
echo '{}' > .prettierrc
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Format everything:

npx prettier --write .
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Check in CI:

npx prettier --check .
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VS Code Setup

  1. Install 'Prettier - Code formatter' extension
  2. Settings: "editor.formatOnSave": true
  3. Settings: "editor.defaultFormatter": "esbenp.prettier-vscode"

Now every save = perfectly formatted code.

The Only Config You Need 

{
  "semi": true,
  "singleQuote": true,
  "tabWidth": 2,
  "trailingComma": "all",
  "printWidth": 100
}
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That's it. Prettier intentionally has few options. Less options = less debates.

With Git Hooks (lint-staged) 

npm i -D husky lint-staged
npx husky init
echo 'npx lint-staged' > .husky/pre-commit
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// package.json
"lint-staged": {
  "*.{js,ts,tsx,css,md}": "prettier --write"
}
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Now: commit → only changed files get formatted → commit includes formatted code.

If your team has ANY style discussions in code reviews — install Prettier and never have them again.

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Custom solution? Email spinov001@gmail.com — quote in 2 hours.

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