NsDepCop is a static code analysis tool that helps you to enforce namespace dependency rules in C# projects.

• Runs as part of the build process and reports dependency problems.
• No more unplanned or unnoticed dependencies in your system.

What is this dependency control anyway? And why automate it?

1. Add the NsDepCop NuGet package to your C# projects:
2. Add a file called config.nsdepcop. Edit it and describe dependency rules.
3. Dependency violations will be underlined in the code editor and also reported at build time just like compiler errors/warnings.

Or check out this step-by-step tutorial video by plainionist.

See the Help for details.

• Install the NsDepCop Config XML Schema Support for Visual Studio to get validation and IntelliSense while editing the config.nsdepcop files.
  • For Visual Studio 2017/2019:
  • For Visual Studio 2015: see the instructions in Help.

The big change in v2.0 is that the implementation changed from MSBuild task + Visual Studio Extension to a standard Roslyn analyzer.

• Supports .NET Core / .NET 5 projects too.
• No need for the NsDepCop Visual Studio Extension any more.
  • The NuGet package works both at build time and inside Visual Studio editor.
  • If the NuGet package is added to a project then it appears in Solution Explorer: project / Dependencies / Analyzers / NsDepCop.Analyzer
  • Issue severities can be configured using Visual Studio light bulb menu or .editorconfig files.
• Requires Visual Studio 2019 (16.10.0 or later).
  • Dropped support for VS 2015/2017. For those, use NsDepCop v1.11.0.
• No need for the out-of-process service host any more.
  • No more "Unable to communicate with NsDepCop service".

Please note that the AutoLowerMaxIssueCount feature is temporarily not supported. Do not yet upgrade to v2.0 if you're using that.

• See the Change Log for version history.

• Please use the Issue Tracker to record bugs and feature requests.
• Or find me on twitter

• Diagnostics Reference
• Troubleshooting
• How to contribute?

• Roslyn for the best parser API.
• ReSharper for the free licence of this amazing tool.
• DotNet.Glob for the globbing library.

• GPL-2.0