I've found ghc's cyclic import error to be rather confusing, and I finally took the time to understand why. Here's an example: Module imports form a cycle for modules: Cmd.Cmd (./Cmd/Cmd.hs) imports: Perform.Midi.Instrument Instrument.MidiDb Instrument.Db Perform.Midi.Instrument (./Perform/Midi/Instrument.hs) imports: Cmd.Cmd Instrument.MidiDb (./Instrument/MidiDb.hs) imports: Perform.Midi.Instrument Instrument.Db (./Instrument/Db.hs) imports: Instrument.Search Instrument.MidiDb Perform.Midi.Instrument Instrument.Search (./Instrument/Search.hs) imports: Instrument.MidiDb Perform.Midi.Instrument It seems to be in a strange order and mentions extraneous modules. I would find this much easier to read: Perform.Midi.Instrument -> Cmd.Cmd -> Instrument.MidiDb -> Perform.Midi.Instrument Instead, the order goes Cmd.Cmd -> Instrument.MidiDb, and then goes backwards to Perform.Midi.Instrument -> Cmd.Cmd. Then it goes forward again to Instrument.MidiDb -> Perform.Midi.Instrument. So the order makes you jump around if you want to trace the import chain. The duplicated module that joins the cycle is not visually highlighted. Whats more, it further confuses the eye by merging in multiple loops. I suppose it could be useful to include additional loops, but I would find it easier to read if they were included on their own line, such as: Cmd.Cmd -> Instrument.Db -> Instrument.Search -> Perform.Midi.Instrument -> Cmd.Cmd However, I think probably the shortest loop is the most interesting one, and if there are multiple shortest loops, simply picking one randomly is likely to be sufficient. Thoughts?