The mypy configuration file¶

Mypy supports reading configuration settings from a file. By default it uses the file mypy.ini with a fallback to .mypy.ini, then setup.cfg in the current directory, then $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mypy/config, then ~/.config/mypy/config, and finally .mypy.ini in the user home directory if none of them are found; the --config-file command-line flag can be used to read a different file instead (see Config file).

It is important to understand that there is no merging of configuration files, as it would lead to ambiguity. The --config-file flag has the highest precedence and must be correct; otherwise mypy will report an error and exit. Without command line option, mypy will look for defaults, but will use only one of them. The first one to read is mypy.ini, then .mypy.ini, and finally setup.cfg.

Most flags correspond closely to command-line flags but there are some differences in flag names and some flags may take a different value based on the module being processed.

Some flags support user home directory and environment variable expansion. To refer to the user home directory, use ~ at the beginning of the path. To expand environment variables use $VARNAME or ${VARNAME}.

Config file format¶

The configuration file format is the usual ini file format. It should contain section names in square brackets and flag settings of the form NAME = VALUE. Comments start with # characters.

A section named [mypy] must be present. This specifies the global flags. The setup.cfg file is an exception to this.
Additional sections named [mypy-PATTERN1,PATTERN2,...] may be present, where PATTERN1, PATTERN2, etc., are comma-separated patterns of fully-qualified module names, with some components optionally replaced by the ‘*’ character (e.g. foo.bar, foo.bar.*, foo.*.baz). These sections specify additional flags that only apply to modules whose name matches at least one of the patterns.

A pattern of the form qualified_module_name matches only the named module, while dotted_module_name.* matches dotted_module_name and any submodules (so foo.bar.* would match all of foo.bar, foo.bar.baz, and foo.bar.baz.quux).

Patterns may also be “unstructured” wildcards, in which stars may appear in the middle of a name (e.g site.*.migrations.*). Stars match zero or more module components (so site.*.migrations.* can match site.migrations).
When options conflict, the precedence order for configuration is:
1. Inline configuration in the source file
2. Sections with concrete module names (foo.bar)
3. Sections with “unstructured” wildcard patterns (foo.*.baz), with sections later in the configuration file overriding sections earlier.
4. Sections with “well-structured” wildcard patterns (foo.bar.*), with more specific overriding more general.
5. Command line options.
6. Top-level configuration file options.

The difference in precedence order between “structured” patterns (by specificity) and “unstructured” patterns (by order in the file) is unfortunate, and is subject to change in future versions.

Note

The warn_unused_configs flag may be useful to debug misspelled section names.

Note

Configuration flags are liable to change between releases.

Per-module and global options¶

Some of the config options may be set either globally (in the [mypy] section) or on a per-module basis (in sections like [mypy-foo.bar]).

If you set an option both globally and for a specific module, the module configuration options take precedence. This lets you set global defaults and override them on a module-by-module basis. If multiple pattern sections match a module, the options from the most specific section are used where they disagree.

Some other options, as specified in their description, may only be set in the global section ([mypy]).

Inverting option values¶

Options that take a boolean value may be inverted by adding no_ to their name or by (when applicable) swapping their prefix from disallow to allow (and vice versa).

Examples¶

Here is an example of a mypy.ini file. To use this config file, place it at the root of your repo and run mypy.

# Global options:

[mypy]
python_version = 2.7
warn_return_any = True
warn_unused_configs = True

# Per-module options:

[mypy-mycode.foo.*]
disallow_untyped_defs = True

[mypy-mycode.bar]
warn_return_any = False

[mypy-somelibrary]
ignore_missing_imports = True

This config file specifies three global options in the [mypy] section. These three options will:

Type-check your entire project assuming it will be run using Python 2.7. (This is equivalent to using the --python-version 2.7 or -2 flag).
Report an error whenever a function returns a value that is inferred to have type Any.
Report any config options that are unused by mypy. (This will help us catch typos when making changes to our config file).

Next, this module specifies three per-module options. The first two options change how mypy type checks code in mycode.foo.* and mycode.bar, which we assume here are two modules that you wrote. The final config option changes how mypy type checks somelibrary, which we assume here is some 3rd party library you’ve installed and are importing. These options will:

Selectively disallow untyped function definitions only within the mycode.foo package – that is, only for function definitions defined in the mycode/foo directory.
Selectively disable the “function is returning any” warnings within mycode.bar only. This overrides the global default we set earlier.
Suppress any error messages generated when your codebase tries importing the module somelibrary. This is useful if somelibrary is some 3rd party library missing type hints.

Import discovery¶

For more information, see the Import discovery section of the command line docs.

mypy_path (string)

Specifies the paths to use, after trying the paths from MYPYPATH environment variable. Useful if you’d like to keep stubs in your repo, along with the config file. Multiple paths are always separated with a : or , regardless of the platform. User home directory and environment variables will be expanded.

This option may only be set in the global section ([mypy]).

Note: On Windows, use UNC paths to avoid using : (e.g. \\127.0.0.1\X$\MyDir where X is the drive letter).

files (comma-separated list of strings)

A comma-separated list of paths which should be checked by mypy if none are given on the command line. Supports recursive file globbing using glob, where * (e.g. *.py) matches files in the current directory and **/ (e.g. **/*.py) matches files in any directories below the current one. User home directory and environment variables will be expanded.

This option may only be set in the global section ([mypy]).

namespace_packages (bool, default False)

Enables PEP 420 style namespace packages. See the corresponding flag for more information.

This option may only be set in the global section ([mypy]).

ignore_missing_imports (bool, default False)

Suppresses error messages about imports that cannot be resolved.

If this option is used in a per-module section, the module name should match the name of the imported module, not the module containing the import statement.

follow_imports (string, default normal)

Directs what to do with imports when the imported module is found as a .py file and not part of the files, modules and packages provided on the command line.

The four possible values are normal, silent, skip and error. For explanations see the discussion for the –follow-imports command line flag.

If this option is used in a per-module section, the module name should match the name of the imported module, not the module containing the import statement.

follow_imports_for_stubs (bool, default False)

Determines whether to respect the follow_imports setting even for stub (.pyi) files.

Used in conjunction with follow_imports=skip, this can be used to suppress the import of a module from typeshed, replacing it with Any.

Used in conjunction with follow_imports=error, this can be used to make any use of a particular typeshed module an error.

python_executable (string)

Specifies the path to the Python executable to inspect to collect a list of available PEP 561 packages. User home directory and environment variables will be expanded. Defaults to the executable used to run mypy.

This option may only be set in the global section ([mypy]).

no_site_packages (bool, default False)

Disables using type information in installed packages (see PEP 561). This will also disable searching for a usable Python executable. This acts the same as --no-site-packages command line flag.

no_silence_site_packages (bool, default False)

Enables reporting error messages generated within installed packages (see PEP 561 for more details on distributing type information). Those error messages are suppressed by default, since you are usually not able to control errors in 3rd party code.

This option may only be set in the global section ([mypy]).

Platform configuration¶

python_version (string)

Specifies the Python version used to parse and check the target program. The string should be in the format DIGIT.DIGIT – for example 2.7. The default is the version of the Python interpreter used to run mypy.

This option may only be set in the global section ([mypy]).

platform (string)

Specifies the OS platform for the target program, for example darwin or win32 (meaning OS X or Windows, respectively). The default is the current platform as revealed by Python’s sys.platform variable.

This option may only be set in the global section ([mypy]).

always_true (comma-separated list of strings)

Specifies a list of variables that mypy will treat as compile-time constants that are always true.

always_false (comma-separated list of strings)

Specifies a list of variables that mypy will treat as compile-time constants that are always false.

Disallow dynamic typing¶

For more information, see the Disallow dynamic typing section of the command line docs.

disallow_any_unimported (bool, default False): Disallows usage of types that come from unfollowed imports (anything imported from an unfollowed import is automatically given a type of Any).
disallow_any_expr (bool, default False): Disallows all expressions in the module that have type Any.
disallow_any_decorated (bool, default False): Disallows functions that have Any in their signature after decorator transformation.
disallow_any_explicit (bool, default False): Disallows explicit Any in type positions such as type annotations and generic type parameters.
disallow_any_generics (bool, default False): Disallows usage of generic types that do not specify explicit type parameters.
disallow_subclassing_any (bool, default False): Disallows subclassing a value of type Any.

Untyped definitions and calls¶

For more information, see the Untyped definitions and calls section of the command line docs.

disallow_untyped_calls (bool, default False): Disallows calling functions without type annotations from functions with type annotations.
disallow_untyped_defs (bool, default False): Disallows defining functions without type annotations or with incomplete type annotations.
disallow_incomplete_defs (bool, default False): Disallows defining functions with incomplete type annotations.
check_untyped_defs (bool, default False): Type-checks the interior of functions without type annotations.
disallow_untyped_decorators (bool, default False): Reports an error whenever a function with type annotations is decorated with a decorator without annotations.

None and Optional handling¶

For more information, see the None and Optional handling section of the command line docs.

no_implicit_optional (bool, default False)

Changes the treatment of arguments with a default value of None by not implicitly making their type Optional.

strict_optional (bool, default True)

Enables or disables strict Optional checks. If False, mypy treats None as compatible with every type.

Note: This was False by default in mypy versions earlier than 0.600.

Configuring warnings¶

For more information, see the Configuring warnings section of the command line docs.

warn_redundant_casts (bool, default False)

Warns about casting an expression to its inferred type.

This option may only be set in the global section ([mypy]).

warn_unused_ignores (bool, default False)

Warns about unneeded # type: ignore comments.

warn_no_return (bool, default True)

Shows errors for missing return statements on some execution paths.

warn_return_any (bool, default False)

Shows a warning when returning a value with type Any from a function declared with a non- Any return type.

warn_unreachable (bool, default False)

Shows a warning when encountering any code inferred to be unreachable or redundant after performing type analysis.

Suppressing errors¶

Note: these configuration options are available in the config file only. There is no analog available via the command line options.

show_none_errors (bool, default True): Shows errors related to strict None checking, if the global strict_optional flag is enabled.
ignore_errors (bool, default False): Ignores all non-fatal errors.

Miscellaneous strictness flags¶

allow_untyped_globals (bool, default False)

Causes mypy to suppress errors caused by not being able to fully infer the types of global and class variables.

allow_redefinition (bool, default False)

Allows variables to be redefined with an arbitrary type, as long as the redefinition is in the same block and nesting level as the original definition.

implicit_reexport (bool, default True)

By default, imported values to a module are treated as exported and mypy allows other modules to import them. When false, mypy will not re-export unless the item is imported using from-as or is included in __all__. Note that mypy treats stub files as if this is always disabled. For example:

# This won't re-export the value
from foo import bar
# This will re-export it as bar and allow other modules to import it
from foo import bar as bar
# This will also re-export bar
from foo import bar
__all__ = ['bar']

strict_equality (bool, default False)

Prohibit equality checks, identity checks, and container checks between non-overlapping types.

Configuring error messages¶

For more information, see the Configuring error messages section of the command line docs.

These options may only be set in the global section ([mypy]).

show_error_context (bool, default False): Prefixes each error with the relevant context.
show_column_numbers (bool, default False): Shows column numbers in error messages.
show_error_codes (bool, default False): Shows error codes in error messages. See Error codes for more information.
pretty (bool, default False): Use visually nicer output in error messages: use soft word wrap, show source code snippets, and show error location markers.
color_output (bool, default True): Shows error messages with color enabled.
error_summary (bool, default True): Shows a short summary line after error messages.
show_absolute_path (bool, default False): Show absolute paths to files.

Incremental mode¶

These options may only be set in the global section ([mypy]).

incremental (bool, default True)

Enables incremental mode.

cache_dir (string, default .mypy_cache)

Specifies the location where mypy stores incremental cache info. User home directory and environment variables will be expanded. This setting will be overridden by the MYPY_CACHE_DIR environment variable.

Note that the cache is only read when incremental mode is enabled but is always written to, unless the value is set to /dev/null (UNIX) or nul (Windows).

sqlite_cache (bool, default False)

Use an SQLite database to store the cache.

cache_fine_grained (bool, default False)

Include fine-grained dependency information in the cache for the mypy daemon.

skip_version_check (bool, default False)

Makes mypy use incremental cache data even if it was generated by a different version of mypy. (By default, mypy will perform a version check and regenerate the cache if it was written by older versions of mypy.)

skip_cache_mtime_checks (bool, default False)

Skip cache internal consistency checks based on mtime.

Advanced options¶

These options may only be set in the global section ([mypy]).

pdb (bool, default False): Invokes pdb on fatal error.
show_traceback (bool, default False): Shows traceback on fatal error.
raise_exceptions (bool, default False): Raise exception on fatal error.
custom_typing_module (string): Specifies a custom module to use as a substitute for the typing module.
custom_typeshed_dir (string): Specifies an alternative directory to look for stubs instead of the default typeshed directory. User home directory and environment variables will be expanded.
warn_incomplete_stub (bool, default False): Warns about missing type annotations in typeshed. This is only relevant in combination with disallow_untyped_defs or disallow_incomplete_defs.

Report generation¶

If these options are set, mypy will generate a report in the specified format into the specified directory.

any_exprs_report (string)

Causes mypy to generate a text file report documenting how many expressions of type Any are present within your codebase.

cobertura_xml_report (string)

Causes mypy to generate a Cobertura XML type checking coverage report.

You must install the lxml library to generate this report.

html_report / xslt_html_report (string)

Causes mypy to generate an HTML type checking coverage report.

You must install the lxml library to generate this report.

linecount_report (string)

Causes mypy to generate a text file report documenting the functions and lines that are typed and untyped within your codebase.

linecoverage_report (string)

Causes mypy to generate a JSON file that maps each source file’s absolute filename to a list of line numbers that belong to typed functions in that file.

lineprecision_report (string)

Causes mypy to generate a flat text file report with per-module statistics of how many lines are typechecked etc.

txt_report / xslt_txt_report (string)

Causes mypy to generate a text file type checking coverage report.

You must install the lxml library to generate this report.

xml_report (string)

Causes mypy to generate an XML type checking coverage report.

You must install the lxml library to generate this report.

Miscellaneous¶

These options may only be set in the global section ([mypy]).

junit_xml (string): Causes mypy to generate a JUnit XML test result document with type checking results. This can make it easier to integrate mypy with continuous integration (CI) tools.
scripts_are_modules (bool, default False): Makes script x become module x instead of __main__. This is useful when checking multiple scripts in a single run.
warn_unused_configs (bool, default False): Warns about per-module sections in the config file that do not match any files processed when invoking mypy. (This requires turning off incremental mode using incremental = False.)
verbosity (integer, default 0): Controls how much debug output will be generated. Higher numbers are more verbose.