Engineering the 100x Speedup: A Static Analysis Performance Report

Up to 100x faster on circular dependency detection. Reproducible benchmarks. Full methodology.

🔄 Drop-in replacement — 100% compatible with all eslint-plugin-import rules, but faster, LLM-optimized error messages, and fewer false positives/negatives.

TL;DR

*10K projection based on O(n²) scaling pattern observed at 1K→5K. We stopped at 5K because eslint-plugin-import would take 10+ minutes.

Why eslint-plugin-import is Slow

The original eslint-plugin-import uses an O(n²) module resolution algorithm:

1. For each file, parse all imports
2. For each import, resolve the full module path
3. For no-cycle, traverse the entire dependency graph for every file

This creates quadratic complexity. On 5,000 files with interconnected imports, the no-cycle rule alone takes 148 seconds.

How eslint-plugin-import-next Fixes This

We rewrote the core algorithms:

1. Cached module resolution — resolve each path once, cache permanently
2. Incremental graph building — build the dependency graph incrementally, not per-file
3. Cycle detection with Tarjan's algorithm — O(n) instead of O(n²)

Result: 2.71 seconds for the same 5,000 files.

Benchmark 1: Core Rules (9 rules)

Both plugins configured with identical rules:

• no-unresolved, named, namespace, default, export
• no-named-as-default, no-named-as-default-member, no-duplicates, order

Takeaway: Even with basic rules, the performance gap grows with codebase size.

Benchmark 2: Recommended Preset

Using the full recommended configuration from each plugin.

Takeaway: Recommended presets show similar scaling — 5.5x faster at 10K files.

Benchmark 3: no-cycle Rule Only

This is where the difference is massive. The no-cycle rule detects circular dependencies.

*10K Projection Note: Based on the O(n²) scaling observed from 1K→5K (27s→148s = 5.5x increase for 5x files), we project eslint-plugin-import would take ~10 minutes at 10K files. We didn't run this because waiting 10+ minutes per iteration is impractical. eslint-plugin-import-next scales linearly (O(n)), so ~5s is expected.

Takeaway: If you use no-cycle (and you should), the speedup is 25-100x depending on codebase size.

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ no-cycle Rule: 5,000 files                                     │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ eslint-plugin-import:      148.59s ████████████████████████████│
│ eslint-plugin-import-next:   2.71s █                           │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Why no-cycle is Critical

Circular dependencies cause:

• Build failures with tree-shaking
• Runtime bugs with undefined imports
• Memory leaks in bundlers
• Test flakiness from initialization order

Most teams disable no-cycle because it's too slow. With eslint-plugin-import-next, you can finally enable it.

Methodology

Apple-to-apple comparison — full source code

Run It Yourself

git clone https://github.com/ofri-peretz/eslint-benchmark-suite.git
cd eslint-benchmark-suite
npm install
npm run generate:import
npm run benchmark:import
npm run benchmark:import-recommended
npm run benchmark:import-no-cycle

Migration Takes 2 Minutes

# Remove old plugin
npm uninstall eslint-plugin-import

# Install new plugin
npm install --save-dev eslint-plugin-import-next

// eslint.config.js
import importNext from 'eslint-plugin-import-next';
export default [importNext.configs.recommended];

Resources

📦 npm: eslint-plugin-import-next 📊 Benchmark Suite 📖 Full Rule List

⭐ Star on GitHub

The Interlace ESLint Ecosystem Interlace is a high-fidelity suite of static code analyzers designed to automate security, performance, and reliability for the modern Node.js stack. With over 330 rules across 18 specialized plugins, it provides 100% coverage for OWASP Top 10, LLM Security, and Database Hardening.

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© 2026 Ofri Peretz. All rights reserved.

Build Securely. I'm Ofri Peretz, a Security Engineering Leader and the architect of the Interlace Ecosystem. I build static analysis standards that automate security and performance for Node.js fleets at scale.

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