# PyCQA/flake8

flake8 is a python tool that glues together pycodestyle, pyflakes, mccabe, and third-party plugins to check the style and quality of some python code.

Repository: https://github.com/PyCQA/flake8
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/flake8
Homepage: https://flake8.pycqa.org
Language: Python
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: python, python3, static-analysis, static-code-analysis, linter, linter-flake8, stylelint, styleguide, style-guide, flake8, pep8, complexity-analysis
Last push: 2026-08-17T23:41:40+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 76/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4372, "days_push": 16, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3819, forks 355 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:21.012984+00:00)

## What it is
Flake8 is a Python CLI tool that combines pycodestyle, pyflakes, and mccabe into a single command for checking code style and quality. It supports per-line noqa suppression, VCS hooks, and extension via plugin entry points.

## Use cases
- lint python code for style violations
- check python code for errors with pyflakes
- measure cyclomatic complexity of python functions
- enforce pep8 style guide in ci
- run a single linting command across a python project
- suppress specific lint warnings with noqa comments
- extend linting with custom flake8 plugins

## When to choose
- you want a single tool combining style checks, error detection, and complexity analysis for python
- you need a mature, widely-adopted python linter with a rich plugin ecosystem
- you want git/mercurial hooks and easy CI integration for code quality checks

## When to avoid
- you need type checking, which requires mypy or similar tools
- you prefer an all-in-one formatter-linter like ruff with much faster performance
- you are linting non-python code

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: linter, developer-tools, cli
- domain: developer-tools
- platform: python, cli, cross-platform
- tags: flake8, pep8, pyflakes, mccabe, style-checking, code-quality, static-code-analysis, plugins, python, static-analysis

## Member repositories
- PyCQA/flake8 (main) score 76

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:21.012984+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:26:28.577341+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/PyCQA/flake8 (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:21.012984+00:00, sha 03dcfce5ca0e)
  - registry_pypi: https://pypi.org/pypi/flake8/json (fetched 2026-08-29T09:21:46.824671+00:00, sha c6bac525f49c)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.