Architecture rules (check)

sprout check                          # every rule in .sproutrules, over the whole project
sprout check --diff origin/main...HEAD   # only the files this branch changed
sprout check --json                   # for scripts

sprout check reads rules from .sproutrules at the project root and lists every import that breaks one. It uses the same dependency graph as impact, so it works for Go, TypeScript/JavaScript, Python, Rust, Java and Kotlin, and it counts a Go file as depending on another only when it uses a name the other declares.

Rules

One rule per line, FROM -> TO: no file matching FROM may depend on a file matching TO. Lines starting with # are comments.

# .sproutrules in kubernetes
# staging repositories are published on their own
staging/ -> pkg/
staging/ -> cmd/
pkg/kubelet/ -> pkg/controller/
# components never import server code
**/*.tsx -> server/

Each side is a path from the project root:

Pattern	Matches
`web/`	everything under `web/`
`web/*.ts`	`.ts` files directly in `web/`
`*/.tsx`	`.tsx` files anywhere
`src/**/internal/`	everything under any `internal/` folder below `src/`

Test files aren’t checked: they ship nowhere, and test fixtures often cross layers. A rule with a side that matches no file is reported, since that’s usually a typo.

Output

$ sprout check   # in kubernetes
1 import breaks .sproutrules (9593 files checked)

.sproutrules:4  pkg/kubelet/ -> pkg/controller/
  pkg/kubelet/cm/dra/plugin/dra_plugin_manager.go -> pkg/controller/tainteviction/timed_workers.go  uses timedworkers.CreateWorkerQueue, timedworkers.NewWorkArgs, timedworkers.TimedWorkerQueue +1 more

It exits 1 when a rule is broken, 0 when none is, and 2 when .sproutrules is missing or a line isn’t a rule.

In CI

To adopt a rule in a project that already breaks it, check only what each pull request changes. The branch’s base must be in the checkout, so fetch the history:

- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    fetch-depth: 0
- uses: actions/setup-go@v5
  with:
    go-version: stable
- run: go install github.com/Sprout-DevLabs/sprout@latest
- run: sprout check --diff origin/${{ github.base_ref }}...HEAD

JSON

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "command": "check",
  "checked": 9593,
  "violations": [
    {"line": 4, "rule": "pkg/kubelet/ -> pkg/controller/", "from": "pkg/kubelet/cm/dra/plugin/dra_plugin_manager.go", "to": "pkg/controller/tainteviction/timed_workers.go", "reason": "uses timedworkers.CreateWorkerQueue, …"}
  ],
  "unmatched": []
}

unmatched lists the rules with a side that matches no file, and is left out when there are none.