# Allow dependencies task to emit DOT graphs **URL:** \ **Category:** Help/Discuss\ **Created:** [September 12, 2015, 6:45pm UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/allow-dependencies-task-to-emit-dot-graphs/11615 "2015-09-12T18:45:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jesus\_Zazueta](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/gradle/user_avatar/discuss.gradle.org/jesus_zazueta/32/197_2.png) [@Jesus\_Zazueta](https://discuss.gradle.org/u/Jesus_Zazueta)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2015, 6:45pm UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/allow-dependencies-task-to-emit-dot-graphs/11615/1 "2015-09-12T18:45:26Z")
Hi. Would it be possible to enhance `AsciiDependencyReportRenderer` and `DependencyReportTask` to emit `.dot` graphs as an alternative format to to plain ASCII? I think this would be helpful for design discussions. Maybe something like ``` gradle dependencies --format dot ``` Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Rene](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/gradle/user_avatar/discuss.gradle.org/rene/32/8082_2.png) [@Rene](https://discuss.gradle.org/u/Rene)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/allow-dependencies-task-to-emit-dot-graphs/11615/2 "2015-09-12T20:53:47Z")
Well you don’t want AsciiDependencyReportRenderer do render Dot files. I guess. But the DependencyReportTask could be enhanced I guess to allow different formats (e.g. as you suggested via a --format flag defaulting to plain ascii. with having dot available it might be also useful to have an option to pipe the output to a file. ---
**Author:** ![Jesus\_Zazueta](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/gradle/user_avatar/discuss.gradle.org/jesus_zazueta/32/197_2.png) [@Jesus\_Zazueta](https://discuss.gradle.org/u/Jesus_Zazueta)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 2:44pm UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/allow-dependencies-task-to-emit-dot-graphs/11615/3 "2015-09-14T14:44:48Z")
Correct. I just realized that `DependencyReportTask` can receive a custom `DependencyReportRenderer`, which defaults to `AsciiDependencyReportRenderer`. It shouldn’t be that hard to integrate a new `DotDependencyReportRenderer` implementation in two ways: 1. Define a custom script task: 2: Have `DependencyReportTask` when a `--format dot` argument is specified. 1 would help in prototyping, 2 would be more appropriate as a general Gradle feature. Thanks!