dep-peek

dep-peek is a lightweight CLI tool that helps you peek into your project and identify unused dependencies by analyzing real import usage in your source code.

This tool is read-only and safe by design it does not remove or modify any dependencies.
It simply tells you what is actually used vs what is declared.

⚠️ This is v1 of dep-peek. The focus is correctness and clarity over advanced analysis.

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Why dep-peek?

In many projects, dependencies get added over time but never removed.
Unused dependencies:

• increase bundle size
• slow down installs
• add maintenance overhead
• create security noise

dep-peek solves this by statically analyzing your source files and comparing real usage against package.json.

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Features (v1)

• Works with JavaScript & TypeScript
• Supports ESM (import) and CommonJS (require)
• Detects used vs unused dependencies
• Ignores:
  • relative imports (./, ../)
  • Node.js built-in modules (fs, path, etc.)
• Handles scoped packages (@babel/parser)
• Safe, non-destructive, read-only CLI

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Installation

Global install (recommended)

npm install -g dep-peek

Usage

Run inside your project root:

dep-peek .

Example output:

Used dependencies:
- fast-glob
- @babel/parser
- @babel/traverse

Unused dependencies:
- chalk
- commander` 

This tells you exactly which dependencies are declared but never used.

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How it works (high level)

1. Scans your project source files (.js, .ts, .jsx, .tsx)

2. Extracts imports using AST parsing

3. Normalizes and filters valid external packages

4. Compares them with package.json dependencies

5. Reports used vs unused dependencies

No heuristics. No guesses. Just static analysis.

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Limitations (v1)

This version intentionally keeps scope limited:

• Does not analyze devDependencies

• Does not remove or modify dependencies

• Does not handle dynamic imports (import() with variables)

• No config file support yet

• Path aliases (@/) are treated as external imports

• Framework-managed dependencies (e.g. react-dom in Next.js) may appear as unused

• CLI tools installed as dependencies may appear unused

These are planned improvements.

Planned features (future versions)

• 🔜 devDependencies audit

• 🔜 --json structured output

• 🔜 Better reporting & formatting

• 🔜 Performance optimizations for large codebases

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Who is this for?

• Developers who want to clean up dependency bloat

• Teams looking for a safe audit tool

• CI pipelines that want visibility (future versions)

• Anyone who prefers clarity over magic

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Author

Vaibhav Kumar

• GitHub: https://github.com/va1bhavx

• Portfolio: https://kumarvaibhav.xyz

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