# markdownlint-rule-helpers > A collection of `markdownlint` helper functions for custom rules ## Overview The [Markdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown) linter [`markdownlint`](https://github.com/DavidAnson/markdownlint) offers a variety of built-in validation [rules](https://github.com/DavidAnson/markdownlint/blob/master/doc/Rules.md) and supports the creation of [custom rules](https://github.com/DavidAnson/markdownlint/blob/master/doc/CustomRules.md). The internal rules share various helper functions; this package exposes those for reuse by custom rules. ## API _Undocumented_ - This package exports the internal functions as-is. The APIs were not originally meant to be public, are not officially supported, and may change from release to release. There are brief descriptive comments above each function, but no [JSDoc](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSDoc) annotations. That said, some of what's here will be useful to custom rule authors and may avoid duplicating code. ## Example ```js const { forEachLine, getLineMetadata } = require("markdownlint-rule-helpers"); module.exports = { "names": [ "every-n-lines" ], "description": "Rule that reports an error every N lines", "tags": [ "test" ], "function": (params, onError) => { const n = params.config.n || 2; forEachLine(getLineMetadata(params), (line, lineIndex) => { const lineNumber = lineIndex + 1; if ((lineNumber % n) === 0) { onError({ "lineNumber": lineNumber, "detail": "Line number " + lineNumber }); } }); } }; ``` See also: [`markdownlint` built-in rule implementations](https://github.com/DavidAnson/markdownlint/tree/master/lib). ## Tests _None_ - The entire body of code is tested to 100% coverage by the core `markdownlint` project, so there are no additional tests here.