How I integrated PyLint into my PyCharm workflow.

PyCharm has it’s own built-in linting, which is already useful and nicely integrated. However, it misses much that PyLint catches.

In this post I explain how I integrate PyLint into PyCharm as an external tool, with links from the PyLint results back to the python file.

This post seems to be a bit dated as of 2023 — you may also be interested in this newer post: How I Integrated Pipenv Pylint into my PyCharm workflow in 2023

Setting up PyLint as an External Tool in PyCharm

1. Install PyLint and create a .pylintrc file (Reference: The docs).
2. Setup PyCharm to run PyLint as an external tool (Reference: Stack Overflow)
3. Edit the .pylintrc file to configure PyLint to print the full file path and line number as shown (The docs)

msg-template={abspath}:{line}: [{msg_id}({symbol}), {obj}] {msg}

4. Configure PyCharm output filters to: .*$FILE_PATH$\:$LINE$\:.*

Then it will recognize filename:line_number as a link

Output Filter configuration is shown at the bottom of this picture:

5. Run your external tool and check that it works as expected, including the links:

How to run you PyLint external tool

PyLint Output

Additional Touches

• Create several levels of PyLinting:

Several PyLint External Tools I created (by copying and modifying the first)

I generally lint for Errors and Warn/Refactor often, and only lint for Convention after the changes to a python file (that I’ll keep using) are several days old (and hence more stable).

• The Grep console plugin can add some nice highlighting
• I often work from the bottom PyLint link up, so that the earlier links still point to the correct lines.