Transitive circular module dependency detected

How to fix

1. Identify the smallest edge that breaks the cycle.
2. Move shared behavior into a lower-level module or explicit interface.
3. Re-run validation to confirm the graph is acyclic.

What it means

Modules form a cycle when declared and actual dependency edges are followed transitively.

Why it matters

Transitive cycles make module ownership unclear and often create release, testing, and initialization problems.

Common causes

• Two modules coordinate through each other instead of a shared abstraction.
• A new callback path completed a cycle.
• Contracts were updated without checking the full graph.

Example bad pattern

payments -> ledger -> settlement -> payments.

Example good pattern

payments and settlement depend on a shared contract or platform service without a cycle.

Related files/config

• .archpilot/architecture.json
• .archpilot/contracts/*.json

Related CLI commands

• archpilot validate
• archpilot validate --ci