`isort` options for profile compatibility

[MichaReiser]

Discussed in #24315

^{Originally posted by tonycoco March 30, 2026}
Since my attempt at a single config option addition to the isort capabilities here #24313 was closed, I wanted to discuss adding isort's lexicographical config option to ruff. As stated in an original PR (#22572) to bring ruff to parity with isort's profile options, I'm trying to move a few open-source Google repos to use ruff and this would be a helpful option to switch. A fully "google" profile compatible config for ruff would look something like:

[tool.ruff.lint.isort]
lexicographical = true # Not yet implemented
line-length = 1000 # Not yet implemented
group-by-package = true # Not yet implemented
force-single-line = true
force-sort-within-sections = true
single-line-exclusions = [
  "collections.abc",
  "six.moves",
  "typing",
  "typing-extensions"
]
order-by-type = false

A potential PR is working here to tackle the lexicographical option: https://github.com/tonycoco/ruff/tree/isort-lexicographical and I'm happy to re-open and share more.

Related to #3119

[MichaReiser]

Related PRs:

• isort: Add sort-strategy option with new full-path strategy #23696
• isort: Add sort-by-qualified-name option #22787

[MichaReiser]

Open questions:

• Should this be a single sort-strategy option or separate options? If separate options, what's the precedence?
• What about other settings that configure the sorting? Should these be collapsed into the new setting?
• Are there other isort sorting strategies other than lexicographical that Ruff doesn't support today?

[tonycoco]

Ruff could probably do both. Include the relevant sorting options so folks could turn them on one at a time if wanted (outlined below in the table), and also even just piggy-back on the idea of a profile.

Based on the isort documentation, here's how the profiles line up with their configs:

black

multi_line_output: 3
include_trailing_comma: True
force_grid_wrap: 0
use_parentheses: True
ensure_newline_before_comments: True
line_length: 88
split_on_trailing_comma: True

django

combine_as_imports: True
include_trailing_comma: True
multi_line_output: 5
line_length: 79

pycharm

multi_line_output: 3
force_grid_wrap: 2
lines_after_imports: 2

google

force_single_line: True
force_sort_within_sections: True
lexicographical: True
single_line_exclusions: ('typing',)
order_by_type: False
group_by_package: True

open_stack

force_single_line: True
force_sort_within_sections: True
lexicographical: True

plone

force_alphabetical_sort: True
force_single_line: True
lines_after_imports: 2
line_length: 200

attrs

atomic: True
force_grid_wrap: 0
include_trailing_comma: True
lines_after_imports: 2
lines_between_types: 1
multi_line_output: 3
use_parentheses: True

hug

multi_line_output: 3
include_trailing_comma: True
force_grid_wrap: 0
use_parentheses: True
line_length: 100

wemake

multi_line_output: 3
include_trailing_comma: True
use_parentheses: True
line_length: 80

appnexus

multi_line_output: 3
include_trailing_comma: True
force_grid_wrap: 0
use_parentheses: True
ensure_newline_before_comments: True
line_length: 88
force_sort_within_sections: True
order_by_type: False
case_sensitive: False
reverse_relative: True
sort_relative_in_force_sorted_sections: True
sections: ['FUTURE', 'STDLIB', 'THIRDPARTY', 'FIRSTPARTY', 'APPLICATION', 'LOCALFOLDER']
no_lines_before: 'LOCALFOLDER'

Now, the missing isort sorting strategies from that list would be:

• lexicographical
  Ruff defaults to natural ordering for string comparisons (using the natord crate), which means item2 comes before item10. The lexicographical option in isort forces standard alphabetical sorting (where item10 would come before item2 due to character-by-character comparison).
• group_by_package
  Groups imports by their top-level package name before performing module-level sorting.
• force_alphabetical_sort
  Forces a strict alphabetical sort across all imports, overriding other grouping criteria (like straight vs. from imports). While Ruff has force_sort_within_sections and order_by_type = false, it does not have a single flag that forces a flat alphabetical list across the entire file or section without regard to other conventions.
• sort_relative_in_force_sorted_sections
  A specific sub-strategy for handling how relative imports are sorted when mixing straight and from imports.

Option Category	isort Option	Ruff Support	Notes
Sorting	lexicographical	❌ Missing	Ruff uses natural sort by default.
	group_by_package	❌ Missing
	force_alphabetical_sort	❌ Missing	Ruff has force-sort-within-sections but not this exact flag.
	sort_relative_in_force_sorted_sections	❌ Missing
	order_by_type	✅ Supported	order-by-type
	case_sensitive	✅ Supported	case-sensitive
	reverse_relative	✅ Supported	relative-imports-order = "closest-to-furthest"
	force_sort_within_sections	✅ Supported	force-sort-within-sections
Grouping/Selection	sections	✅ Supported	section-order
	no_lines_before	✅ Supported	no-lines-before
	single_line_exclusions	✅ Supported	single-line-exclusions
	combine_as_imports	✅ Supported	combine-as-imports
Formatting/Layout	multi_line_output	❌ Missing	Handled by Ruff's global formatting rules.
	include_trailing_comma	❌ Missing	Handled by Ruff's formatter.
	force_grid_wrap	❌ Missing	Handled by Ruff's formatter.
	use_parentheses	❌ Missing	Handled by Ruff's formatter.
	ensure_newline_before_comments	❌ Missing	Layout specific.
	line_length	❌ Missing	Ruff uses a global line-length.
	split_on_trailing_comma	✅ Supported	split-on-trailing-comma
	lines_after_imports	✅ Supported	lines-after-imports
	lines_between_types	✅ Supported	lines-between-types
System	atomic	❌ Missing	Not a sorting strategy (operational).