diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 93a4f81b5..614a6676b 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -160,4 +160,4 @@ cython_debug/
 #  be found at https://github.com/github/gitignore/blob/main/Global/JetBrains.gitignore
 #  and can be added to the global gitignore or merged into this file.  For a more nuclear
 #  option (not recommended) you can uncomment the following to ignore the entire idea folder.
-.idea/
\ No newline at end of file
+.idea/
diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile-base b/docker/Dockerfile-base
index a61f6d42d..0ce43b621 100644
--- a/docker/Dockerfile-base
+++ b/docker/Dockerfile-base
@@ -99,4 +99,3 @@ RUN pip3 install "peft @ git+https://github.com/huggingface/peft.git@main" \
     pip3 install awscli && \
     # The base image ships with `pydantic==1.8.2` which is not working
     pip3 install -U --no-cache-dir pydantic
-
diff --git a/examples/falcon/config-7b-lora.yml b/examples/falcon/config-7b-lora.yml
index 1291198cf..090cc6bcf 100644
--- a/examples/falcon/config-7b-lora.yml
+++ b/examples/falcon/config-7b-lora.yml
@@ -61,4 +61,3 @@ special_tokens:
   pad_token: "<|endoftext|>"
   bos_token: ">>ABSTRACT<<"
   eos_token: "<|endoftext|>"
-
diff --git a/examples/falcon/config-7b.yml b/examples/falcon/config-7b.yml
index 787c4121c..dc67d6125 100644
--- a/examples/falcon/config-7b.yml
+++ b/examples/falcon/config-7b.yml
@@ -61,4 +61,3 @@ special_tokens:
   pad_token: "<|endoftext|>"
   bos_token: ">>ABSTRACT<<"
   eos_token: "<|endoftext|>"
-
diff --git a/scripts/alpaca_json_to_jsonl.py b/scripts/alpaca_json_to_jsonl.py
index 98c968309..f535d1afc 100644
--- a/scripts/alpaca_json_to_jsonl.py
+++ b/scripts/alpaca_json_to_jsonl.py
@@ -1,23 +1,39 @@
+"""Module to convert json file to jsonl"""
+
 import os
 import sys
+
+from typing import Optional
 from pathlib import Path
 
 import fire
-from typing import Optional
+
+
+from axolotl.convert import (
+    FileReader,
+    StdoutWriter,
+    FileWriter,
+    JsonlSerializer,
+    JsonParser,
+    JsonToJsonlConverter,
+)
+
 
 # add src to the pythonpath so we don't need to pip install this
 project_root = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), ".."))
 src_dir = os.path.join(project_root, "src")
 sys.path.insert(0, src_dir)
 
-from axolotl.convert import *
-
 
 def main(
-    input: Path,
+    file: Path,
     output: Optional[Path] = None,
     to_stdout: Optional[bool] = False,
 ):
+    """
+    Convert a json file to jsonl
+    """
+
     file_reader = FileReader()
     if to_stdout or output is None:
         writer = StdoutWriter()
@@ -28,7 +44,7 @@ def main(
 
     converter = JsonToJsonlConverter(file_reader, writer, json_parser, jsonl_serializer)
 
-    converter.convert(input, output)
+    converter.convert(file, output)
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
diff --git a/scripts/finetune.py b/scripts/finetune.py
index 58f1c0957..029e94648 100644
--- a/scripts/finetune.py
+++ b/scripts/finetune.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+"""Prepare and train a model on a dataset. Can also infer from a model or merge lora"""
+
 import importlib
 import logging
 import os
@@ -16,15 +18,16 @@ from axolotl.utils.tokenization import check_dataset_labels
 from axolotl.utils.validation import validate_config
 from axolotl.utils.dict import DictDefault
 
-project_root = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), ".."))
-src_dir = os.path.join(project_root, "src")
-sys.path.insert(0, src_dir)
-
 from axolotl.utils.data import load_prepare_datasets
 from axolotl.utils.models import load_model, load_tokenizer
 from axolotl.utils.trainer import setup_trainer
 from axolotl.utils.wandb import setup_wandb_env_vars
 
+project_root = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), ".."))
+src_dir = os.path.join(project_root, "src")
+sys.path.insert(0, src_dir)
+
+
 logging.basicConfig(level=os.getenv("LOG_LEVEL", "INFO"))
 DEFAULT_DATASET_PREPARED_PATH = "last_run_prepared"
 
@@ -37,7 +40,7 @@ def choose_device(cfg):
             try:
                 if torch.backends.mps.is_available():
                     return "mps"
-            except:
+            except Exception:  # pylint: disable=broad-exception-caught
                 return "cpu"
 
     cfg.device = get_device()
@@ -73,7 +76,7 @@ def do_inference(cfg, model, tokenizer, prompter="AlpacaPrompter"):
 
         model.eval()
         with torch.no_grad():
-            # gc = GenerationConfig()  # TODO swap out and use this
+            # gc = GenerationConfig()  # TODO swap out and use this # pylint: disable=fixme
             generated = model.generate(
                 inputs=batch["input_ids"].to(cfg.device),
                 do_sample=True,
@@ -130,12 +133,12 @@ def train(
         config = choose_config(config)
 
     # load the config from the yaml file
-    with open(config, "r") as f:
-        cfg: DictDefault = DictDefault(yaml.load(f, Loader=yaml.Loader))
+    with open(config, encoding="utf-8") as file:
+        cfg: DictDefault = DictDefault(yaml.load(file, Loader=yaml.Loader))
     # if there are any options passed in the cli, if it is something that seems valid from the yaml,
     # then overwrite the value
     cfg_keys = cfg.keys()
-    for k in kwargs:
+    for k, _ in kwargs.items():
         # if not strict, allow writing to cfg even if it's not in the yml already
         if k in cfg_keys or cfg.strict is False:
             # handle booleans
@@ -167,13 +170,11 @@ def train(
 
     # load the tokenizer first
     logging.info("loading tokenizer...")
-    tokenizer = load_tokenizer(
-        cfg.base_model_config,
-        cfg.tokenizer_type,
-        cfg
-    )
+    tokenizer = load_tokenizer(cfg.base_model_config, cfg.tokenizer_type, cfg)
 
-    if check_not_in(["inference", "shard", "merge_lora"], kwargs):  # don't need to load dataset for these
+    if check_not_in(
+        ["inference", "shard", "merge_lora"], kwargs
+    ):  # don't need to load dataset for these
         train_dataset, eval_dataset = load_prepare_datasets(
             tokenizer, cfg, DEFAULT_DATASET_PREPARED_PATH
         )
@@ -262,10 +263,13 @@ def train(
 
     logging.info(f"Training Completed!!! Saving pre-trained model to {cfg.output_dir}")
 
+    # pylint: disable=fixme
     # TODO do we need this fix? https://huggingface.co/docs/accelerate/usage_guides/fsdp#saving-and-loading
     # only save on rank 0, otherwise it corrupts output on multi-GPU when multiple processes attempt to write the same file
     if cfg.local_rank == 0:
         model.save_pretrained(cfg.output_dir)
+
+    # pylint: disable=fixme
     # trainer.save_model(cfg.output_dir)  # TODO this may be needed for deepspeed to work? need to review another time
 
 
diff --git a/src/axolotl/datasets.py b/src/axolotl/datasets.py
index 0e166f6f0..c7bb9fbfe 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/datasets.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/datasets.py
@@ -82,10 +82,8 @@ class ConstantLengthDataset(IterableDataset):
                 else:
                     example_len = 0
 
-                if (
-                    not example_len
-                    or buffer_len + int(add_concat_token) + example_len
-                    > self.seq_length
+                if not example_len or (
+                    buffer_len + int(add_concat_token) + example_len > self.seq_length
                 ):
                     if buffer["input_ids"]:
                         input_ids = torch.cat(buffer["input_ids"], dim=-1)[
@@ -95,9 +93,8 @@ class ConstantLengthDataset(IterableDataset):
                             : self.seq_length
                         ]
                         labels = torch.cat(buffer["labels"], dim=-1)[: self.seq_length]
-                        if (
-                            labels.size() == input_ids.size()
-                            and attention_mask.size() == input_ids.size()
+                        if labels.size() == input_ids.size() and (
+                            attention_mask.size() == input_ids.size()
                         ):
                             yield {
                                 "input_ids": input_ids,
diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/data.py b/src/axolotl/utils/data.py
index a0cff21c4..6d2123eea 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/data.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/data.py
@@ -1,14 +1,12 @@
 import logging
 from hashlib import md5
 from pathlib import Path
-from typing import Union
+from typing import Tuple, Union
 
 from datasets import (
     load_from_disk,
     load_dataset,
-    IterableDataset,
     Dataset,
-    concatenate_datasets,
     DatasetDict,
 )
 from huggingface_hub import hf_hub_download
@@ -48,10 +46,12 @@ def load_tokenized_prepared_datasets(
         md5(
             (
                 str(cfg.sequence_len)
-                + "@"
-                + "|".join(sorted([f"{d.path}:{d.type}:{d.shards}" for d in cfg.datasets]))
-                + "|"
-                + tokenizer_name
+                + "@"  # noqa: W503
+                + "|".join(  # noqa: W503
+                    sorted([f"{d.path}:{d.type}:{d.shards}" for d in cfg.datasets])
+                )
+                + "|"  # noqa: W503
+                + tokenizer_name  # noqa: W503
             ).encode("utf-8")
         ).hexdigest()
     )
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ def load_tokenized_prepared_datasets(
                 f"{cfg.push_dataset_to_hub}/{ds_hash}", use_auth_token=use_auth_token
             )
             dataset = dataset["train"]
-    except:
+    except Exception:  # pylint: disable=broad-except
         pass
 
     if dataset:
@@ -109,15 +109,21 @@ def load_tokenized_prepared_datasets(
                 fp = hf_hub_download(
                     repo_id=d.path, repo_type="dataset", filename=d.data_files
                 )
-                ds: Dataset = load_dataset("json", data_files=fp, streaming=False, split=None)
+                ds: Dataset = load_dataset(
+                    "json", data_files=fp, streaming=False, split=None
+                )
             if not ds:
-                raise Exception("unhandled dataset load")
+                raise ValueError("unhandled dataset load")
             # support for using a subset of the data
             if d.shards:
                 if "train" in ds:
-                    ds: DatasetDict = ds.shuffle(seed=42)["train"].shard(num_shards=d.shards, index=0)
+                    ds: DatasetDict = ds.shuffle(seed=42)["train"].shard(
+                        num_shards=d.shards, index=0
+                    )
                 else:
-                    ds: Dataset = ds.shuffle(seed=42).shard(num_shards=d.shards, index=0)
+                    ds: Dataset = ds.shuffle(seed=42).shard(
+                        num_shards=d.shards, index=0
+                    )
             d_type = d.type
             d_type_split = d_type.split(":")
             d_base_type = d_type_split[0]
@@ -243,7 +249,7 @@ def load_tokenized_prepared_datasets(
 
 def load_prepare_datasets(
     tokenizer: PreTrainedTokenizerBase, cfg, default_dataset_prepared_path
-) -> (Dataset, Dataset):
+) -> Tuple[Dataset, Dataset]:
     max_packed_sequence_len = (
         cfg.max_packed_sequence_len if cfg.max_packed_sequence_len else cfg.sequence_len
     )
@@ -259,12 +265,14 @@ def load_prepare_datasets(
             md5(
                 (
                     str(cfg.sequence_len)
-                    + "@"
-                    + str(max_packed_sequence_len)
-                    + seed
-                    + "|".join(sorted([f"{d.path}:{d.type}:{d.shards}" for d in cfg.datasets]))
-                    + "|"
-                    + tokenizer_name
+                    + "@"  # noqa: W503
+                    + str(max_packed_sequence_len)  # noqa: W503
+                    + seed  # noqa: W503
+                    + "|".join(  # noqa: W503
+                        sorted([f"{d.path}:{d.type}:{d.shards}" for d in cfg.datasets])
+                    )
+                    + "|"  # noqa: W503
+                    + tokenizer_name  # noqa: W503
                 ).encode("utf-8")
             ).hexdigest()
         )
@@ -285,7 +293,7 @@ def load_prepare_datasets(
                     f"{cfg.push_dataset_to_hub}/{ds_hash}", use_auth_token=use_auth_token
                 )
                 dataset = dataset["train"]
-        except:
+        except Exception:  # pylint: disable=broad-except
             pass
 
         if dataset:
@@ -327,9 +335,9 @@ def load_prepare_datasets(
                     d
                     for d in dataset
                     if len(d["input_ids"]) < cfg.sequence_len
-                    and len(d["input_ids"]) > 0
-                    and len(d["input_ids"]) == len(d["attention_mask"])
-                    and len(d["input_ids"]) == len(d["labels"])
+                    and len(d["input_ids"]) > 0  # noqa: W503
+                    and len(d["input_ids"]) == len(d["attention_mask"])  # noqa: W503
+                    and len(d["input_ids"]) == len(d["labels"])  # noqa: W503
                 ]
             )
 
diff --git a/tests/test_prompters.py b/tests/test_prompters.py
index 1c3c13852..b4a34c6c0 100644
--- a/tests/test_prompters.py
+++ b/tests/test_prompters.py
@@ -12,7 +12,9 @@ class AlpacaPrompterTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_prompt_style_w_instruct(self):
         prompter = AlpacaPrompter(prompt_style=PromptStyle.instruct.value)
-        res = next(prompter.build_prompt("tell me a joke about the following", "alpacas"))
+        res = next(
+            prompter.build_prompt("tell me a joke about the following", "alpacas")
+        )
         assert "Below is an instruction" in res
         assert "### Instruction:" in res
         assert "### Input:" in res
@@ -30,7 +32,9 @@ class AlpacaPrompterTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_prompt_style_w_chat(self):
         prompter = AlpacaPrompter(prompt_style=PromptStyle.chat.value)
-        res = next(prompter.build_prompt("tell me a joke about the following", "alpacas"))
+        res = next(
+            prompter.build_prompt("tell me a joke about the following", "alpacas")
+        )
         assert "Below is an instruction" in res
         assert "### Instruction:" not in res
         assert "### Input:" not in res
@@ -45,5 +49,3 @@ class AlpacaPrompterTest(unittest.TestCase):
         assert "### Response:" not in res
         assert "USER:" in res
         assert "ASSISTANT:" in res
-
-