Setting up WordPressCS to work in Sublime Text

Functioning in 2023

As of writing this, the only working approach is this, which uses sublime-phpcs. The article linked has a full, step by step instruction with possible issue resolutions as well.

sublime-phpcs package

Install the sublime-phpcs package, then use the "Switch coding standard" command in the Command Palette to switch between coding standards.

SublimeLinter-phpcs

sublime-phpcs is insanely powerful, but if you'd prefer automatic linting, SublimeLinter-phpcs can do that.

Install PHP Sniffer and WordPress Coding Standards per the installation instructions in the readme.
Use Package Control to search for and install SublimeLinter then SublimeLinter-phpcs.
From the command palette, select Preferences: SublimeLinter Settings - User and change user.linters.phpcs.standard to the phpcs standard of your choice (e.g. WordPress, etc.).
If setting standard doesn't work, try setting user.linters.phpcs.args to "--standard=WordPress-Core"
You can also specify the standard to: "standard": "$folder/phpcs.xml.dist". That way the linter will check the root folder of your project for a phpcs.xml.dist file and read the location and usage of a standard from the file. This is useful if you are using custom ruleset.

SublimeLinter-phpcs user settings

You can specify multiple standards, show violation codes, include runtime args for something like PHPCompatibility, and choose which directories to ignore:

// SublimeLinter Settings - User
{
    "linters": {
        "phpcs": {
            "args": "--standard=WordPress-Extra,WordPress-Docs,PHPCompatibilityWP --runtime-set testVersion 7.2- -s",
            "excludes": "vendor/"
        }
    }
}