Prospector aggregates multiple Python static analysis tools—Pylint, PyFlakes, pycodestyle, pydocstyle, and McCabe complexity checker—into a unified interface for comprehensive code quality assessment.

Install via pip:

pip install prospector

Analyze individual files by specifying the path:

prospector module.py

For recursive project analysis:

prospector src/

Customize behavior using profiles and strictness levels:

prospector --profile ci.yaml --strictness veryhigh src/

The output format identifies specific locations and issue types:

module.py
  Line: 4
    F401: module imported but unused
    E302: expected 2 blank lines, found 1
  Line: 7
    C0103: Function name "CalculateTotal" doesn't conform to snake_case naming style

Consider this problematic implementation:

# calculations.py
import json,math

def CalculateTotal(a,b):
    return a+b

print(CalculateTotal(5,3))

Running Prospector reveals:

calculations.py
  Line: 2
    F401: json imported but unused
    E231: missing whitespace after ','
  Line: 4
    E302: expected 2 blank lines, found 1
    C0103: Function name "CalculateTotal" doesn't conform to snake_case naming style
    E231: missing whitespace after ','
    E225: missing whitespace around operator
  Line: 6
    W292: no newline at end of file

Addressing these violations produces cleaner code:

# calculations.py
import math


def calculate_total(first, second):
    return first + second


if __name__ == "__main__":
    print(calculate_total(5, 3))

Configuration files enable project-specific rules. Create .prospector.yaml to adjust thresholds:

strictness: high

ignore:
  - tests/
  - build/

pep8:
  options:
    max-line-length: 100

pylint:
  disable:
    - C0111
    - R0903

This configuration excludes test directoreis, extends line length limits to 100 characters, and disables missing docsrting warnings while maintaining high strictness for other metrics.