How it works¶

Expected pattern¶

Declare a static, sorted list at module scope:

__lazy_modules__ = [
    "argparse",
    "numpy",
    "pathlib",
]

What is considered lazy-capable¶

flake8-lazy checks imports that execute at module scope and looks for runtime uses at module scope.

An import is considered lazy-capable when it is not needed immediately during module import.

The checker intentionally treats these as lazy-capable:

• Imports only referenced in annotations.
• Imports only referenced in if typing.TYPE_CHECKING: guards.
• Imports only used inside functions.

It intentionally ignores:

• from __future__ import ...
• Imports inside function and class bodies

For files inside a package, enclosing package names are also treated as non-lazy. For example, in a/b/c.py, names a and a.b should not be declared lazy (either in __lazy_modules__ or with lazy import).