In one embodiment, a method for propagating design constraints between a module and a module instance in a circuit design is provided. A port of the module and a port/pin of the circuit design are determined, between which constraints are to be propagated. The determination of the port/pin includes determining whether or not pin of the module instance corresponding to the port is directly connected to a top-level port of the circuit design. In response to determining that the pin is directly connected to a top-level port, the top-level port is selected as the port/pin. In response to determining that the pin is not directly connected to the top-level port, the pin is selected as the port/pin. Design constraints are propagated between the port and the selected port/pin. The propagated design constraints are stored in a storage device.