Metadata Linter: A new linter in snapcraft to lint about missing metadata fields
Metadata
Current evaluation
Implemented a metadata linter to warn about missing fields like license, title, and contact info. The enhancement was completed and merged via pull request #5610.
Suggested action: —
No scores available.
Issue body
### What needs to get done
Currently, there are a lot of snaps, without any proper metadata. Some snaps often even miss licenses. If we can lint about it, instead of making it mandatory for now, it'll not break any snaps and still can show users that they're missing these fields.
If the field was meant to be adopted from appstream metadata and there was some issue in adopting it, we can also lint about it here. We can also take this chance to improve the coverage of metadata from Appstream Metadatas.
Fields I think can be linted
- license
- title
- issues
- contact
- website
- apps.common-id
### Why it needs to get done
We need proper listings of snaps, for several reasons:
- users can be well-informed about the snap
- the listing with screenshots can attract users
- companies/orgs/users can abide by licenses, if they have some strict license policies
With proper listing, the snap store can heavily improve its plethora of apps.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Implemented a metadata linter to warn about missing fields like license, title, and contact info. The enhancement was completed and merged via pull request #5610. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Implemented a metadata linter to flag missing fields like license and title. The enhancement was completed and merged via pull request #5610, enabling snapcraft to lint metadata without breaking existing snaps. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 | — | — | Added a metadata linter to flag missing fields like license, title, and contact info. The enhancement was completed and merged via pull request #5610. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 | — | — | Implemented a metadata linter to flag missing fields like license, title, and contact info. The enhancement was completed and merged via pull request #5610, enabling non-breaking validation to improve snap store listings. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #5544 Metadata linter | snapcraft | closed | Merged and completed by @soumyaDghosh. The implementation adds a metadata linter that warns about missing fields in stable snaps, fulfilling the bounty requirements. The bounty has been awarded. | |
| #449 Added a linter to verify that the metadata is ok (CRAFT-322). | charmcraft | merged | Merged after approval, adding a linter to verify metadata. The change depends on a separate analint PR and introduces validation checks, though enforcement during packing is deferred to a future release. | |
| #5686 Add more fields to the metadata linter | snapcraft | open | Enhancement to add icon, common-id, and desktop fields to the metadata linter. Triaged by maintainer 388 days ago; no further activity. Fields still absent from current linter code. |