--- title: "Let an agent break import cycles and make the app load lazily" description: "Point a coding agent at the import cycles and eager imports behind a slow app boot, and merge what it lands." url: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/agent-import-cycles canonicalUrl: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/agent-import-cycles --- # Let an agent break import cycles and make the app load lazily Point a coding agent at the import cycles and eager imports behind a slow app boot, and merge what it lands. ## How to choose an approach This technique currently has one documented company example. Validate its prerequisites, tradeoffs and original CI environment against your repository before adapting it. - **[Ramp](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/ramp#agent-import-cycles)**: Use it when Tests and tools start the application, and its startup imports far more modules than a single test or command uses. Check before adopting: Lazy imports move a failure from startup to the first use, so keep a test that imports every module. ## Apply this technique ````text Evaluate and apply this CI technique to my repository: Let an agent break import cycles and make the app load lazily. Point a coding agent at the import cycles and eager imports behind a slow app boot, and merge what it lands. Read the technique and its source-backed company examples: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/agent-import-cycles.md Inspect this repository’s CI workflows, build and test commands, dependencies, and recent run timings. Identify where this technique applies and explain the expected benefit using this repository’s evidence. Measure a baseline from recent comparable runs: elapsed time, queue time, runner minutes and failures where available. If data is unavailable, say what cannot be measured. Compare relevant company approaches, checking prerequisites, platform differences and tradeoffs. Rank applicable options by evidence, fit and measurable opportunity; do not present company results as predictions for this repo. Recommend the smallest safe change, show what checks and fallback paths remain, and ASK ME WHICH CHANGE TO APPROVE BEFORE EDITING ANY FILES. Only after approval, work on a new feature branch, make one reversible change, and open a reviewable pull request. Never merge or push to a default or protected branch. Keep required checks, test coverage, deployment and release behavior intact. Validate the change and compare equivalent runs where possible; report limitations and what should be monitored after merge. ```` ## How Ramp used this technique Read what Ramp changed and follow the original sources. ### Ramp: Let an agent break import cycles and make the app load lazily Ramp's engineer in the August 2026 talk described telling the agent to fix all the app's import cycles and to make the app lazy, because the app boots up an enormous amount of Python modules. The agent made a lot of progress on both, and a lot of that code was merged. The talk presents this among the hard problems Ramp gave the agent. Evidence: Company-reported result or observation 2026: Ramp reported that a lot of the agent's import-cycle and lazy-loading code was merged. ([Source](https://claude.com/customers/ramp-boris-office-hours)) Use it when: Tests and tools start the application, and its startup imports far more modules than a single test or command uses. Before applying it: Lazy imports move a failure from startup to the first use, so keep a test that imports every module. [Read more in the Ramp playbook](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/ramp#agent-import-cycles) [Primary source](https://claude.com/customers/ramp-boris-office-hours) ## CI optimization is continuous work. Apply this technique yourself, or use StarSling Runners for faster GitHub Actions and optional agent-driven optimization PRs, which teams on eligible paid plans can turn on. [Get self-improving CI](https://starsling.dev/products/runners) ## Related techniques ### [Reduce repeated process and build-graph startup](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/reduce-test-process-overhead) Batch compatible test work or share its build graph to avoid paying process startup and initialization for every file or target. 3 implementations · 3 companies (Anthropic, OpenAI, Stripe) ### [Share module initialization only for explicitly safe tests](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/share-module-state) Linear added an opt-in Vitest project with isolate: false, so safe files share a module registry within each worker. 1 implementation · 1 company (Linear) ### [Balance test work across shards](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/balance-test-shards) Use measured runtimes or smaller test files to reduce the slowest shard, which determines when the suite finishes. 4 implementations · 4 companies (Linear, OpenAI, Ramp, Stripe) ## Company Playbooks ### [Anthropic](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/anthropic) Run only affected tests ### [DoorDash](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/doordash) Run build and test in parallel, sharded across CI agents ### [Linear](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/linear) Benchmark the same job on faster hardware ### [Mastra](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/mastra) StarSling runners for the slowest test workflow ### [OpenAI](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/openai) Rank CI fixes by the minutes they save ### [Ramp](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/ramp) Move a CPU-bound test suite to a faster CPU ### [Shopify](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/shopify) Let an agent iterate against one CI metric ### [Spotify](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/spotify) Build arm64 on native arm64 runners ### [Stripe](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/stripe) Run only the tests a change can reach ### [Uber](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/uber) Build the merge-queue speculations most likely to be needed ## Related guides Implementation guides for this technique. ### [Cut repeated test setup](https://starsling.dev/best-practices/github-actions/cut-repeated-test-setup) Move shared fixture work out of individual test cases and keep necessary cleanup. ### [Shard tests across parallel jobs](https://starsling.dev/best-practices/github-actions/shard-tests) Split a long suite with a matrix and your test framework’s sharding support. ### [Diagnose slow tests in CI](https://starsling.dev/github-actions/problems/slow-tests) Check common causes in order and confirm each with workflow evidence. ### [Optimize Playwright tests](https://starsling.dev/github-actions/optimizations/optimize-playwright) Choose trace and video retention and install the browsers your suite uses. ### [Make Vitest run mode explicit](https://starsling.dev/github-actions/optimizations/optimize-vitest) Pin run mode to the test command and bound the job with a timeout.