pnomolos · pnomolos · Jun 11, 2026
diff --git a/.reek.yml b/.reek.yml
@@ -113,6 +113,7 @@ detectors:
     - RubyCritic::Reporter#self.report_generator_class
     - RubyCritic::SourceLocator#deduplicate_symlinks
     - RubyCritic::Command::Compare#compare_branches
+    - RubyCritic::Attributes::ClassMethods#coerce
   FeatureEnvy:
     exclude:
     - Parser::AST::Node#module_name
@@ -163,6 +164,7 @@ detectors:
     - RubyCritic::Command::Compare#threshold_reached?
     - RubyCritic::Command::Compare#threshold_values_set?
     - RubyCritic::SourceLocator#ruby_file?
+    - RubyCritic::Attributes#default_for
   TooManyInstanceVariables:
     exclude:
     - RubyCritic::Generator::Html::CodeFile
@@ -189,6 +191,13 @@ detectors:
     exclude:
     - RubyCritic::Config#self.method_missing
     - RubyCritic::Config#self.respond_to_missing?
+    - RubyCritic::Attributes::ClassMethods#attributes
+  ModuleInitialize:
+    exclude:
+    - RubyCritic::Attributes
+  NilCheck:
+    exclude:
+    - RubyCritic::Attributes::ClassMethods#coerce
   TooManyMethods:
     exclude:
     - RubyCritic::Cli::Options::File

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 * [CHORE] ...
 * [FEATURE] ...
 
+* [CHANGE] Replace the unmaintained `virtus` dependency with a small internal attributes module, dropping its abandoned transitive dependencies (`axiom-types`, `coercible`, `descendants_tracker`, `ice_nine`, and the deprecated `thread_safe`). Also move `ostruct` to a development dependency since it is only used in tests. (by [@pnomolos][])
 * [CHANGE] Replace all Cucumber features with Minitest/Spec specs (by [@faisal][])
 * [BUGFIX] Add `lang="en"` to the report's `<html>` element, give the menu-toggle anchor an `aria-label`, and make the per-rating summary IDs unique. Fixes 17 WCAG 2.1 AA structural errors on `overview.html`. (by [@MarcusAl][])
 
@@ -506,3 +507,4 @@
 [@exoego]: https://github.com/exoego
 [@raff-s]: https://github.com/raff-s
 [@MarcusAl]: https://github.com/MarcusAl
+[@pnomolos]: https://github.com/pnomolos
diff --git a/lib/rubycritic/core/analysed_module.rb b/lib/rubycritic/core/analysed_module.rb
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 # frozen_string_literal: true
 
-require 'virtus'
+require 'rubycritic/core/attributes'
 require 'rubycritic/core/rating'
 
 module RubyCritic
   class AnalysedModule
-    include Virtus.model
+    include Attributes
 
     # Complexity is reduced by a factor of 25 when calculating cost
     COMPLEXITY_FACTOR = 25.0

diff --git a/lib/rubycritic/core/attributes.rb b/lib/rubycritic/core/attributes.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+# frozen_string_literal: true
+
+module RubyCritic
+  # Lightweight replacement for the subset of Virtus used by RubyCritic.
+  # Provides an `attribute` class macro that registers attributes (with
+  # optional type coercion and default value), generates reader/writer
+  # methods, and an initializer accepting a hash of attribute values.
+  module Attributes
+    def self.included(base)
+      base.extend(ClassMethods)
+    end
+
+    # Class-level macros and attribute registry.
+    module ClassMethods
+      def attributes
+        @attributes ||=
+          if superclass.respond_to?(:attributes)
+            superclass.attributes.dup
+          else
+            {}
+          end
+      end
+
+      def attribute(name, type = nil, default: nil)
+        attributes[name] = { type: type, default: default }
+
+        define_method(name) { instance_variable_get("@#{name}") }
+        define_method("#{name}=") do |value|
+          instance_variable_set("@#{name}", self.class.coerce(type, value))
+        end
+      end
+
+      def coerce(type, value)
+        return value if value.nil? || type.nil?
+
+        case type.name
+        when 'Float'   then Float(value)
+        when 'Integer' then Integer(value)
+        when 'Symbol'  then value.to_sym
+        when 'Array'   then Array(value)
+        else value
+        end
+      end
+    end
+
+    def initialize(attributes = {})
+      self.class.attributes.each do |name, definition|
+        if attributes.key?(name)
+          public_send("#{name}=", attributes[name])
+        else
+          instance_variable_set("@#{name}", default_for(definition))
+        end
+      end
+    end
+
+    private
+
+    def default_for(definition)
+      default = definition[:default]
+      case default
+      when Array, Hash then default.dup
+      else default
+      end
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/lib/rubycritic/core/smell.rb b/lib/rubycritic/core/smell.rb
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 # frozen_string_literal: true
 
-require 'virtus'
+require 'rubycritic/core/attributes'
 require 'rubycritic/core/location'
 
 module RubyCritic
   class Smell
-    include Virtus.model
+    include Attributes
 
     attribute :context
     attribute :cost

diff --git a/rubycritic.gemspec b/rubycritic.gemspec
@@ -34,7 +34,6 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
   spec.add_dependency 'flay', '~> 2.13'
   spec.add_dependency 'flog', '~> 4.7'
   spec.add_dependency 'launchy', '>= 2.5.2'
-  spec.add_dependency 'ostruct'
   spec.add_dependency 'parser', '>= 3.3.0.5'
   spec.add_dependency 'prism', '>= 1.6.0'
   spec.add_dependency 'rainbow', '~> 3.1.1'
@@ -43,7 +42,6 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
   spec.add_dependency 'ruby_parser', '~> 3.21'
   spec.add_dependency 'simplecov', '>= 0.22.0'
   spec.add_dependency 'tty-which', '~> 0.5.0'
-  spec.add_dependency 'virtus', '~> 2.0'
 
   spec.add_development_dependency 'aruba', '~> 2.3.1', '>= 2.3.1'
   spec.add_development_dependency 'bundler', '>= 2.0.0'
@@ -60,6 +58,7 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
   spec.add_development_dependency 'minitest-around', '~> 0.6.0'
   spec.add_development_dependency 'minitest-mock'
   spec.add_development_dependency 'mocha', '~> 3.0.0'
+  spec.add_development_dependency 'ostruct'
   spec.add_development_dependency 'rake', '~> 13.3.0', '>= 11.0.0'
   spec.add_development_dependency 'rdoc'
   spec.add_development_dependency 'rexml', '>= 3.2.0'