goimportmaps

Visualize and validate package dependencies in your Go project.

Overview

goimportmaps is a CLI tool that analyzes your Go project's internal package imports, visualizes them as a dependency graph, and detects architectural violations like forbidden dependencies or unexpected imports.

Ideal for large-scale or monorepo Go applications, this tool helps ensure architectural integrity by preventing undesired package-level coupling.

Features

• 📊 Visualize internal package dependencies (Mermaid, Graphviz, HTML)
• 🚨 Detect forbidden imports based on custom rules (forbidden mode)
• 🛡 Enforce allowed imports strictly (allowed mode, whitelist style)
• 📈 Coupling metrics analysis (inspired by NDepend)
  • Afferent Coupling (Ca): Number of packages depending on this package
  • Efferent Coupling (Ce): Number of packages this package depends on
  • Instability (I): Ce / (Ca + Ce) ratio (0=stable, 1=unstable)
• ✅ Output violations with actionable messages
• 🔍 Highlight architectural drift in pull requests
• 🧠 Perfect for layered, hexagonal, or clean architecture

Installation

# Install goimportmaps into your project
go get -tool github.com/mickamy/goimportmaps/cmd/goimportmaps@latest

# or install it globally
go install github.com/mickamy/goimportmaps/cmd/goimportmaps@latest

Usage

goimportmaps ./...

You can also scope the analysis to specific subdirectories:

goimportmaps ./internal/...

Options

Option	Description
--format	Output format: text, mermaid, html, or graphviz
--mode	Validation mode: forbidden (default) or allowed
--metrics	Show coupling metrics (overrides config setting)

Example

Given the following structure:

main
├── handler
│   └── user_handler.go (imports service)
├── service
│   └── user_service.go (imports infra)
└── infra
    └── db.go

Forbidden Mode (default)

If handler imports infra directly, the tool will detect:

🚨 1 violation(s) found

🚨 Violation: github.com/your/project/internal/handler imports github.com/your/project/internal/infra

Allowed Mode (strict whitelist)

You can enforce exact allowed imports:

allowed:
  - source: github.com/your/project/internal/handler
    imports:
      - github.com/your/project/internal/service
    stdlib: true # allow importing standard library packages as well (default: true)

If handler tries to import anything other than service or stdlib (e.g., infra), it will be flagged.

---

Mermaid Output Example

graph TD
  main --> handler
  handler --> service
  service --> infra
  handler --> infra %% ❌

---

Coupling Metrics

Display package coupling metrics to identify architectural issues:

# Show metrics in CLI output
goimportmaps ./... --metrics

# Generate HTML report with metrics dashboard
goimportmaps ./... --format=html --metrics > metrics-report.html

Metrics Output Example

📊 Coupling Metrics:

Package                           Ca   Ce      I Status
internal/cli                       0   11   1.00 🚨
internal/prints                    2   11   0.85 🚨  
internal/config                    4    6   0.60 ✅

🚨 Coupling Violations:
- internal/cli: High efferent coupling (11 > 10), High instability (1.00 > 0.80)
- internal/prints: High efferent coupling (11 > 10), High instability (0.85 > 0.80)

Understanding Metrics

• Ca (Afferent Coupling): Higher values indicate packages that are heavily depended upon (stable)
• Ce (Efferent Coupling): Higher values indicate packages with many dependencies (unstable)
• I (Instability):
  • 0.0 = Completely stable (only used by others)
  • 1.0 = Completely unstable (only uses others)
  • 0.5 = Balanced coupling

---

Configuration

.goimportmaps.yaml

Forbidden Mode Example

forbidden:
  - source: github.com/your/project/internal/handler
    imports:
      - github.com/your/project/internal/infra
  - source: github.com/your/project/internal/app
    imports:
      - github.com/your/project/internal/db

Allowed Mode Example

allowed:
  - source: github.com/your/project/internal/handler
    imports:
      - github.com/your/project/internal/service
  - source: github.com/your/project/internal/service
    imports:
      - github.com/your/project/internal/repository
    stdlib: false

Metrics Configuration Example

metrics:
  enabled: true
  coupling:
    max_efferent: 10      # Maximum efferent coupling (Ce)
    max_afferent: 15      # Maximum afferent coupling (Ca)  
    max_instability: 0.8  # Maximum instability (I)
    warn_efferent: 7      # Warning threshold for Ce
    warn_afferent: 10     # Warning threshold for Ca
    warn_instability: 0.6 # Warning threshold for I

HTML Output

Use --format=html to generate a standalone static report:

# Basic HTML report
goimportmaps ./... --format=html > report.html

# HTML report with metrics dashboard
goimportmaps ./... --format=html --metrics > metrics-report.html

The metrics-enabled HTML report includes:

• Interactive dependency graph with Mermaid.js
• Coupling metrics table with color-coded violations
• Visual instability bars and status indicators
• Summary cards showing violation counts

Reports can be viewed in your browser or uploaded as CI artifacts.

License

MIT