Automating Android Module Dependency Visualization Using Custom Lint Rules

In large‑scale Android projects, modules are heavily componentized, making manual maintenance of dependency graphs labor‑intensive and often outdated for new team members. The article proposes an automated solution using a custom Lint detector to dynamically generate and visualize module dependencies.

The core classes are Detector for scanning files and Issue for defining the rule. The detector implements two Gradle‑related callbacks: beforeCheckRootProject(context: Context) to handle the root module and beforeCheckEachProject(context: Context) for each sub‑module.

Key code snippets include the Gradle execution command:

./gradlew lintDebug

and the definition of the Context class used to access project information:

open class Context(
    main: Project?,
    project: Project?,
    val file: File,
    private var contents: CharSequence? = null
)

The main detector, DependencyProjectDetector , builds a tree map of ElementNode objects representing modules and their dependencies. It collects nodes via collectNode , analyzes each project's direct libraries, and removes unnecessary dependencies with removeUnnecessaryDependency . After processing, it outputs a Mermaid flowchart wrapped in markdown code fences:

println("```mermaid")
val head = "graph TD"
println(head)
// iterate over treeMap to print edges
println("```")

To enable cross‑module analysis, the Lint options must include checkDependencies true :

lintOptions {
    checkDependencies true
}

The generated diagrams initially contain redundant edges; the article demonstrates simplifying the graph by keeping multi‑node dependencies and discarding direct ones, resulting in clearer visualizations. Benefits include faster onboarding for newcomers and regular dependency audits for experienced developers.