diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ba2f07901d0ff..7bf488eae9eef 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ and with [a variety of other package managers](https://docs.astral.sh/ruff/insta
 To run Ruff as a linter, try any of the following:
 
 ```shell
-ruff check .                        # Lint all files in the current directory (and any subdirectories).
+ruff check                          # Lint all files in the current directory (and any subdirectories).
 ruff check path/to/code/            # Lint all files in `/path/to/code` (and any subdirectories).
 ruff check path/to/code/*.py        # Lint all `.py` files in `/path/to/code`.
 ruff check path/to/code/to/file.py  # Lint `file.py`.
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ ruff check @arguments.txt           # Lint using an input file, treating its con
 Or, to run Ruff as a formatter:
 
 ```shell
-ruff format .                        # Format all files in the current directory (and any subdirectories).
+ruff format                          # Format all files in the current directory (and any subdirectories).
 ruff format path/to/code/            # Format all files in `/path/to/code` (and any subdirectories).
 ruff format path/to/code/*.py        # Format all `.py` files in `/path/to/code`.
 ruff format path/to/code/to/file.py  # Format `file.py`.
diff --git a/docs/formatter.md b/docs/formatter.md
index df51389979ea1..04d04b14eaf3f 100644
--- a/docs/formatter.md
+++ b/docs/formatter.md
@@ -11,8 +11,9 @@ The Ruff formatter is available as of Ruff [v0.1.2](https://astral.sh/blog/the-r
 directories, and formats all discovered Python files:
 
 ```shell
-ruff format .                 # Format all files in the current directory.
-ruff format /path/to/file.py  # Format a single file.
+ruff format                   # Format all files in the current directory.
+ruff format path/to/code/     # Lint all files in `path/to/code` (and any subdirectories).
+ruff format path/to/file.py   # Format a single file.
 ```
 
 Similar to Black, running `ruff format /path/to/file.py` will format the given file or directory
@@ -422,8 +423,8 @@ Currently, the Ruff formatter does not sort imports. In order to both sort impor
 call the Ruff linter and then the formatter:
 
 ```shell
-ruff check --select I --fix .
-ruff format .
+ruff check --select I --fix
+ruff format
 ```
 
 A unified command for both linting and formatting is [planned](https://github.com/astral-sh/ruff/issues/8232).
diff --git a/docs/installation.md b/docs/installation.md
index 03e3fe345edca..06486f9817959 100644
--- a/docs/installation.md
+++ b/docs/installation.md
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@ pip install ruff
 Once installed, you can run Ruff from the command line:
 
 ```shell
-ruff check .   # Lint all files in the current directory.
-ruff format .  # Format all files in the current directory.
+ruff check   # Lint all files in the current directory.
+ruff format  # Format all files in the current directory.
 ```
 
 For **macOS Homebrew** and **Linuxbrew** users, Ruff is also available as [`ruff`](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/ruff)
@@ -58,8 +58,8 @@ On **Docker**, it is published as `ghcr.io/astral-sh/ruff`, tagged for each rele
 the latest release.
 
 ```shell
-docker run -v .:/io --rm ghcr.io/astral-sh/ruff check .
-docker run -v .:/io --rm ghcr.io/astral-sh/ruff:0.3.0 check .
+docker run -v .:/io --rm ghcr.io/astral-sh/ruff check
+docker run -v .:/io --rm ghcr.io/astral-sh/ruff:0.3.0 check
 ```
 
 [![Packaging status](https://repology.org/badge/vertical-allrepos/ruff-python-linter.svg?exclude_unsupported=1)](https://repology.org/project/ruff-python-linter/versions)
diff --git a/docs/linter.md b/docs/linter.md
index a0119c2e018b9..3f5212eb650d9 100644
--- a/docs/linter.md
+++ b/docs/linter.md
@@ -11,15 +11,17 @@ and more.
 directories, and lints all discovered Python files, optionally fixing any fixable errors:
 
 ```shell
-ruff check .          # Lint all files in the current directory.
-ruff check . --fix    # Lint all files in the current directory, and fix any fixable errors.
-ruff check . --watch  # Lint all files in the current directory, and re-lint on change.
+ruff check                  # Lint all files in the current directory.
+ruff check --fix            # Lint all files in the current directory, and fix any fixable errors.
+ruff check --watch          # Lint all files in the current directory, and re-lint on change.
+ruff check path/to/code/    # Lint all files in `path/to/code` (and any subdirectories).
 ```
 
 For the full list of supported options, run `ruff check --help`.
 
 !!! note
     As of Ruff v0.1.7 the `ruff check` command uses the current working directory (`.`) as the default path to check.
+    On older versions, you must provide this manually e.g. `ruff check .`.
     See [the file discovery documentation](configuration.md#python-file-discovery) for details.
 
 ## Rule selection
@@ -150,7 +152,7 @@ imports, reformat docstrings, rewrite type annotations to use newer Python synta
 To enable fixes, pass the `--fix` flag to `ruff check`:
 
 ```shell
-ruff check . --fix
+ruff check --fix
 ```
 
 By default, Ruff will fix all violations for which safe fixes are available; to determine
@@ -197,10 +199,10 @@ Ruff only enables safe fixes by default. Unsafe fixes can be enabled by settings
 
 ```shell
 # Show unsafe fixes
-ruff check . --unsafe-fixes
+ruff check --unsafe-fixes
 
 # Apply unsafe fixes
-ruff check . --fix --unsafe-fixes
+ruff check --fix --unsafe-fixes
 ```
 
 By default, Ruff will display a hint when unsafe fixes are available but not enabled. The suggestion can be silenced
diff --git a/docs/tutorial.md b/docs/tutorial.md
index 4e5f242daf4fd..cb7139d473b32 100644
--- a/docs/tutorial.md
+++ b/docs/tutorial.md
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ def sum_even_numbers(numbers: Iterable[int]) -> int:
 We can run the Ruff linter over our project via `ruff check`:
 
 ```shell
-❯ ruff check .
+❯ ruff check
 numbers/numbers.py:3:8: F401 [*] `os` imported but unused
 Found 1 error.
 [*] 1 fixable with the `--fix` option.
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ Ruff identified an unused import, which is a common error in Python code. Ruff c
 "fixable" error, so we can resolve the issue automatically by running `ruff check --fix`:
 
 ```shell
-❯ ruff check --fix .
+❯ ruff check --fix
 Found 1 error (1 fixed, 0 remaining).
 ```
 
@@ -71,10 +71,16 @@ def sum_even_numbers(numbers: Iterable[int]) -> int:
     )
 ```
 
+Note Ruff runs in the current directory by default, but you can pass specific paths to check:
+
+```shell
+❯ ruff check numbers/numbers.py
+```
+
 Now that our project is passing `ruff check`, we can run the Ruff formatter via `ruff format`:
 
 ```shell
-❯ ruff format .
+❯ ruff format
 1 file reformatted
 ```
 
@@ -135,7 +141,7 @@ To configure Ruff, let's create a configuration file in our project's root direc
 Running Ruff again, we see that it now enforces a maximum line width, with a limit of 79:
 
 ```shell
-❯ ruff check .
+❯ ruff check
 numbers/numbers.py:5:80: E501 Line too long (90 > 79)
 Found 1 error.
 ```
@@ -217,7 +223,7 @@ If we run Ruff again, we'll see that it now enforces the pyupgrade rules. In par
 the use of the deprecated `typing.Iterable` instead of `collections.abc.Iterable`:
 
 ```shell
-❯ ruff check .
+❯ ruff check
 numbers/numbers.py:1:1: UP035 [*] Import from `collections.abc` instead: `Iterable`
 Found 1 error.
 [*] 1 fixable with the `--fix` option.
@@ -260,7 +266,7 @@ all functions have docstrings:
 If we run Ruff again, we'll see that it now enforces the pydocstyle rules:
 
 ```shell
-❯ ruff check .
+❯ ruff check
 numbers/__init__.py:1:1: D104 Missing docstring in public package
 numbers/numbers.py:1:1: UP035 [*] Import from `collections.abc` instead: `Iterable`
 numbers/numbers.py:1:1: D100 Missing docstring in public module
@@ -285,7 +291,7 @@ def sum_even_numbers(numbers: Iterable[int]) -> int:
 Running `ruff check` again, we'll see that it no longer flags the `Iterable` import:
 
 ```shell
-❯ ruff check .
+❯ ruff check
 numbers/__init__.py:1:1: D104 Missing docstring in public package
 numbers/numbers.py:1:1: D100 Missing docstring in public module
 Found 3 errors.