dep-check-cli

A fast CLI tool to check your Node.js project dependencies for common issues.

Features

• Find unused dependencies declared in package.json but never imported
• Find missing dependencies imported in source files but not declared
• Detect duplicate packages installed at multiple levels of node_modules
• Show dependency sizes ranked by disk usage
• Check for deprecated packages via the npm registry
• Monorepo support with automatic workspace detection
• JSON output for CI/CD integration
• Color-coded output (red = unused, yellow = missing, green = ok)

Installation

npm install -g dep-check-cli

Or run without installing:

npx dep-check-cli

Usage

dep-check-cli [path] [options]

Options

| Flag | Description | |------|-------------| | [path] | Project directory to check (default: .) | | --sizes | Show installed package sizes ranked by disk usage | | --deprecated | Check for deprecated packages (makes npm network calls) | | --recursive | Scan all workspace packages in a monorepo | | --json | Output results as JSON (useful for CI) | | -v, --verbose | Show extra details (e.g. duplicate package locations) | | --version | Print version number | | --help | Show help |

Examples

Check current project:

dep-check-cli

Check a specific project:

dep-check-cli ./my-project

Show package sizes:

dep-check-cli --sizes

Monorepo scan with sizes:

dep-check-cli --recursive --sizes

Check for deprecated packages:

dep-check-cli --deprecated

JSON output for CI:

dep-check-cli --json | jq '.summary'

Output

 Project: /path/to/my-project
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Unused deps (2):
    ✗ lodash
    ✗ moment
  Missing deps (1):
    ! axios
  Duplicates:    none

 Summary
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  2 unused  1 missing  0 duplicates

JSON Output Schema

{
  "results": [
    {
      "projectPath": "/absolute/path",
      "unused": ["lodash", "moment"],
      "missing": ["axios"],
      "duplicates": [
        { "name": "semver", "locations": ["node_modules/semver", "node_modules/npm/node_modules/semver"] }
      ],
      "sizes": [
        { "name": "typescript", "size": "62.3MB", "sizeBytes": 65323008 }
      ],
      "deprecated": [
        { "name": "request", "version": "2.88.2", "message": "request has been deprecated..." }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "summary": {
    "totalUnused": 2,
    "totalMissing": 1,
    "totalDuplicates": 0
  }
}

Exit Codes

| Code | Meaning | |------|---------| | 0 | No unused or missing dependencies found | | 1 | Issues found, or fatal error |

How It Works

1. Reads package.json to collect all declared dependencies
2. Scans all source files (.ts, .tsx, .js, .jsx, .mjs, .cjs) for import/require statements
3. Compares declared vs imported sets to find unused and missing packages
4. Walks node_modules tree to detect packages installed at multiple depths (duplicates)
5. Optionally queries npm info for deprecation notices

Node.js built-in modules (fs, path, node:fs, etc.) are automatically excluded from the missing check.

License

MIT