DocumentationExperience League Authoring Guide

Acrolinx

Last update: Fri Sep 12 2025 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Acrolinx is similar to a grammar and spelling checker you use in Word. However, it’s much more powerful. Acrolinx helps you author content in several ways:

  • Enables findable, scannable, and easy to read content
  • Corrects spelling and grammar
  • Helps with consistency with Adobe brands and terms
  • Optimizes content for localization

It even points out URLs that are being redirected, and finds broken links. Please use Acrolinx regularly.

Set up Acrolinx in Visual Studio Code

Acrolinx is run across repos at validation, but a VSC extension is highly recommended for you to use at the file level in Markdown.

IMPORTANT
We have a limited number of Visual Studio Code licenses available, so don’t use the Acrolinx for Visual Studio Code extension unless you’re a full-time EXL writer or you have permission from the team.

  1. Sign in to Adobe (either VPN or CORP).

    You do not need an Acrolinx account. When you authenticate to Adobe (LDAP/VPN), you are signed in to the Acrolinx server.

  2. (Prerequisite) Verify that your Visual Studio Code is at version 1.53 or higher.

  3. Install the Acrolinx extension from the Marketplace:

    1. In Visual Studio Code, click Extensions to open the Extensions panel.
    2. Search for the Acrolinx for Visual Studio Code.
    3. Install the extension.

  4. After installation, open any markdown file in Visual Studio Code.

  5. Click anywhere in an article, then click the Acrolinx Show Sidebar icon on the left-nav in VSC.

    Acrolinx sidebar icon

    A browser opens for sign-in, showing An Application Wants to Access Your Acrolinx Account.

  6. If necessary, specify your LDAP/OKTA information.

    Use https://adobe-api.acrolinx.cloud/ as the server.

  7. Click Confirm.

  8. Close the connection message and return to Visual Studio Code.

  9. In the Acrolinx sidebar, click Check.

Acrolinx VSC check

Guidance on using Acrolinx in VSC

Here are typical ways that you use Acrolinx in VSC:

  • Run Acrolinx when you finish drafting an article (described in the previous section).
  • Follow the useful style and terminology guidance in the Acrolinx side-bar. Remember the style guidance it provides to reduce future flags.
  • Click the score to view the Scorecard, which is a round-up of all the issues.
  • Use the link checking feature. It catches redirected URLs and 404s.
  • Get involved: Send Blake Frei terms you need added or changed, or guidance questions that arise.
  • Strive for green results (not a perfect score).
  • Review your baseline reports regularly to check your guide’s Acrolinx health (described below).

View Acrolinx baseline reports for repos baselines

Baseline reports from Acrolinx let you get an overall understanding of issues found across your guide.

The baseline URLs are derived from the repositories.edn file.

These baseline URLs change monthly. For tracking purposes, the baseline is reset/updated once a month.

Baseline for July 2, 2025 (current)

Previous baselines

For previous baselines, see Old Acrolinx Baselines

Generate Acrolinx baselines (admin) generate-acrolinx-baselines

Trigger a new baseline

Baselines are not generated automatically. Instead, we need to reset the repositories.edn repo to its nil state.

On the last day of the month (if possible), do this:

  1. To trigger a new baseline, open the acrolinx-testing.en repo locally, and make sure the local clone is in sync with the server.
  2. Rename the repositories.edn file to repositories-baseline-backup-<year>-<month>-<day>.edn.
  3. Copy the repositories-nil.edn file. Paste it into the same folder (acrolinx-config-prod).
  4. Rename the repositories-nil copy.edn to repositories.edn.
  5. Push the changes up to the server.

The Acrolinx cron job runs once a day at around midnight. The job should turn the nil values into production baseline content.

Copy the new baseline information into the authoring guide

  1. The following day, open the the acrolinx-testing.en repo locally, and make sure the local clone is in sync with the server.

  2. Open the repositories.edn file. Make sure that all the nil values have been replaced with baseline content.

    If there’s a problem with the baseline, reach out to an EXL engineer. He might need to re-run the baseline job.

  3. Copy the content of the repositories.edn file into a new Visual Studio Code window and new file.

  4. Remove the header content at the beginning of the file as well as the [ character on line 5 (replace with space) and the ] character at the end of the file.

  5. Use the following find/change expression:

    Find:

    code language-txt 
     \["https://git.corp.adobe.com/api/v3/repos/AdobeDocs/(.+?)"
  \{:last-baseline #inst "(.+?)",
   :last-batch-id
   "gen.github.baseline.(.+?)",
   :last-total (.+?),
   :last-success (.+?),
   :aggregdash
   "https://adobe-api.acrolinx.cloud/api/batch/gen.github.baseline.(.+?)"\}\]

    Replace:

    code language-txt 
    * [$1](https://adobe-api.acrolinx.cloud/api/batch/gen.github.baseline.$3)

    find/change expression

  6. Copy the contents of the file.

  7. Open and sync the authoring-guide-exl.en repo.

  8. Open the acrolinx.md file.

  9. Go to the “View Acrolinx baseline reports for repos” in the acrolinx.md file, add a new bold heading, and paste the new baseline info.

  10. Cut the previous section, open the acrolinx-old-baselines.md file, and paste the cut section containing the previous month’s baseline info.

  11. Save the files and push the changes.

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