Multi-file analysis

Multi-file analysis allows rules to use project-wide information, such as the module dependency graph, instead of analyzing each file in isolation.

Performance and architecture

ESLint evaluates rules per file and does not provide a built-in project graph. Plugins such as eslint-plugin-import must rebuild module resolution and the module graph outside of ESLint’s core. Projects report the original import/no-cycle rule taking tens of seconds, or - on larger repositories - over a minute.

Oxlint implements multi-file analysis in the core engine. It lints files and builds the module graph in parallel, shares parsing and resolution across rules, and typically completes comparable import/no-cycle checks in a few seconds.

Enable the import plugin

To use multi-file analysis, you must enable the import plugin and configure at least one import/* rule. For an example, see the config file in the next section.

Detect cycles with import/no-cycle

Enable import/no-cycle to detect circular dependencies.

Import cycles:

• obscure dependency direction
• make refactors harder
• can cause imported values to be undefined due to evaluation order

.oxlintrc.json

{
  "$schema": "./node_modules/oxlint/configuration_schema.json",
  "plugins": ["import"],
  "rules": {
    "import/no-cycle": ["error", { "maxDepth": 3 }]
  }
}

TypeScript path aliases

When running import/* rules, Oxlint automatically discovers tsconfig.json to resolve TypeScript path aliases such as compilerOptions.paths.