flake8-tidy-imports

A flake8 plugin that helps you write tidier imports.

Linting a Django project? Check out my book Boost Your Django DX which covers Flake8 and many other code quality tools.

Requirements

Python 3.9 to 3.13 supported.

Installation

First, install with pip:

python -m pip install flake8-tidy-imports

Second, if you define Flake8’s select setting, add the I25 prefix to it. Otherwise, the plugin should be active by default.

Options

banned-modules

Config for rule I251 (below). Should contain a map where each line is a banned import string, followed by '=', then the message to use when encountering that import.

There is also a special directive to ban a preselected list of removed/moved modules between Python 2 and Python 3, recommending replacements from six where possible. It can be turned on by adding {python2to3} to the list of banned-modules.

For example in setup.cfg:

[flake8]
banned-modules =
  mock = Use unittest.mock.
  {python2to3}

Note that despite the name, you can ban imported objects too, since the syntax is the same. For example:

[flake8]
banned-modules =
  decimal.Decimal = Use ints and floats only.

Entries containing * are treated as wildcards matching zero or more path components. For example:

• example.yellow.* matches example.yellow, example.yellow.truck, example.yellow.truck.driving etc.
• example.*.truck matches example.truck, example.yellow.truck, example.red.truck, example.big.red.truck, etc.

ban-relative-imports

Controls rule I252 (below). Accepts two values:

• parents - bans imports from parent modules (and grandparents, etc.), i.e. with more than one ..
• true - bans all relative imports.

For example:

[flake8]
ban-relative-imports = parents

(If you want to ban absolute imports, you can put your project's modules in banned-modules.)

Rules

Note: Before version 4.0.0, the rule codes were numbered 50 lower, e.g. I250 was I200. They were changed in Issue #106 due to conflict with flake8-import-order.

I250: Unnecessary import alias

Complains about unnecessary import aliasing of three forms:

• import foo as foo -> import foo
• import foo.bar as bar -> from foo import bar
• from foo import bar as bar -> from foo import bar

The message includes the suggested rewrite (which may not always be correct), for example:

$ flake8 file.py
file.py:1:1: I250 Unnecessary import alias - rewrite as 'from foo import bar'.

Such aliases can be automatically fixed by isort if you activate its remove_redundant_aliases option.

I251: Banned import `` used.

Complains about use of banned imports. By default there are no imports banned - you should configure them with banned-modules as described above in 'Options'.

The message includes a user-defined part that comes from the configuration. For example:

$ flake8 file.py
file.py:1:1: I251 Banned import 'mock' used - use unittest.mock instead.

I252: Relative imports <from parent modules> are banned.

Complains about use of relative imports:

• from . import foo (sibling import)
• from .bar import foo (sibling import)
• from .. import foo (parent import)

Controlled by the ban-relative-imports configuration option.

Absolute imports, or relative imports from siblings, are recommended by PEP8:

> Absolute imports are recommended, as they are usually more readable > and tend to be better behaved... > > python > import mypkg.sibling > from mypkg import sibling > from mypkg.sibling import example > > > However, explicit relative imports are an acceptable alternative to > absolute imports... > > python > from . import sibling > from .sibling import example >

See also

For more advanced control of imports in your project, try import-linter.