diff --git a/.github/workflows/pythonpackage.yml b/.github/workflows/pythonpackage.yml
index 824b748c..12277331 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pythonpackage.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pythonpackage.yml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ jobs:
           poetry install
       - name: Format check with black
         run: |
-          make format
+          make format-check
       - name: Typecheck with mypy
         run: |
           make typecheck
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 374b4e85..b9650cee 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -45,4 +45,8 @@ Please add type annotations for all new code.
 
 ### Code Formatting
 
-Rich uses `black` for code formatting. I recommend setting up black in your editor to format on save.
+Rich uses [`black`](https://github.com/psf/black) for code formatting.
+I recommend setting up black in your editor to format on save.
+
+To run black from the command line, use `make format-check` to check your formatting,
+and use `make format` to format and write to the files.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index a4c62de2..6bed4f76 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 test:
 	pytest --cov-report term-missing --cov=rich tests/ -vv
+format-check:
+	black --check .
 format:
-	black --check rich tests
+	black .
 typecheck:
 	mypy -p rich --ignore-missing-imports --warn-unreachable
 typecheck-report: