ADR 1: Use tools.namespace

Date: 2022-03-21

Status: Accepted

Context

To have the dependencies of each namespace in a project it is necessary to parse these declarations from source file, and for that we look at three options:

• Use java.io.PushbackReader combined with the read function to read clojure file, find ns form and then parse its contents (how ns-graph works).
• Use analysis data provided by clj-kondo which serves just to enable writing tools and linters that are not yet in clj-kondo itself.
• Use tools.namespace that was created and is maintained by the clojure team for the purpose of being a toolset for managing namespaces in Clojure.

Decision

We will use tools.namespace because it is a set of specific tools for our need.

Consequences

• tool.namespace also has a dependency graph data structure that is useful for dependency analysis.
• We don't need to maintain our own parsing algorithm.
• We don't force our users to use clj-kondo if they don't want to.
• Keep the design as simple and performant as possible.