Code quality

What is architecture governance?

Enforcing structural rules about which parts of a codebase are allowed to depend on which others.

By Cláudia FernandesUpdated 2026-10-02

Architectural intent, such as layering, module boundaries, or 'the domain layer must not import the web layer', is normally documented in a diagram nobody checks. Governance tooling turns those rules into assertions that fail a build when violated.

Enforced rules stop an architecture eroding one pragmatic import at a time. They also need upkeep, since rules that lag behind a deliberate design change block legitimate refactors until someone updates them, so they work best when owned by the team that owns the design. Relatively rare as a capability, and generally found in tools focused on long-lived codebases.

What to look for

How rules are expressed, and whether they live in version control
Whether violations fail CI or only appear in a report
Support for gradually adopting rules on an existing codebase
Visualization of current dependencies versus intended structure

Best 8 code quality, security and code review tools with architecture governance

Every tool in the directory whose documentation covers this, 5 fully and 3 partially. Full support is shown first. Shown in a random order that changes on every visit, so no tool gets an advantage from its position.

Support is not the same as parity, since some implementations are narrower in scope, gated to a higher plan tier, or maintained only for existing customers. The note under each tool is what its own documentation describes.

Code Quality Platform

CodeScene

Auto-generated architectural definitions, subsystem health, cross-service coupling, distributed-monolith detection

Code Security Platform

Corgea

Circular dependencies (CWE-1047) and SOLID violations

PR Review Tool

Cursor (Bugbot)

ROUTING.md maps products to code boundaries; APPROVAL_POLICY.md sets per-directory review requirements.

PR Review Tool

Greptile

Custom rules enforce architecture patterns (no DB models in controllers, repository pattern); rule-based only

Code Quality Platform

SonarQube

Derived vs intended architecture, tangles, oversized components, wrong dependency and location issues.

PR Review Tool

CodeRabbit

Cross-repo breaking-change detection and natural-language Custom Checks; no dependency-rule enforcement engine

Code Quality Platform

Qlty

Components (path-glob groupings) and Applications aggregate metrics; no dependency or layering rule enforcement

PR Review Tool

Qodo

Cross-repo dependency impact tracing and architecture diagrams in walkthrough; no dependency-rule enforcement

Code Smell Detection Complexity Metrics Duplication Detection Dead Code Detection Test Coverage Tracking Diff Coverage (New Code)

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