clr

AI-Native Dead Code Detection

Transparent, Delicate, and Fast

Installation · Quick Start · Documentation · Contributing

Why clr?

Traditional dead code tools blindly flag unused code. But modern codebases are complex—dynamic imports, barrel files, and framework magic create false positives everywhere.

clr is different. Built for the Agentic era, it combines:

• Rust Speed — Oxc parser + Rayon parallelism for instant analysis
• AI Intelligence — Confidence scoring lets LLMs make the final call
• Context Awareness — Generates AI context files so agents understand your codebase

# Find dead code in seconds, not minutes
$ clr scan

  Found 23 issues in 1,847 files (142ms)

  src/utils/legacy.ts
    ├─ unusedHelper (unused_export) — 0 references [confidence: 0.95]
    └─ deprecatedFn (unused_export) — 0 references [confidence: 0.87]

  src/components/Button.tsx
    └─ OldButtonProps (unused_type) — 0 references [confidence: 0.92]

Installation

Via npm (Recommended)

# Global installation
npm install -g @aspect/clr

# Or run directly with npx
npx @aspect/clr scan

Via Cargo

cargo install clr

From Source

git clone https://github.com/aspect-build/clr.git
cd clr
cargo build --release

Quick Start

1. Initialize (Optional)

Generate AI context files for Claude, Cursor, or other AI tools:

clr init

This creates:

• claude.md — Context for Claude Code
• agent.md — Universal AI agent guide
• .cursorrules — Cursor editor context

2. Scan for Dead Code

# Pretty output (default)
clr scan

# JSON output for LLM consumption
clr scan --format json

# Interactive TUI
clr scan --format tui

# Filter by confidence
clr scan --confidence 0.8

3. Update AI Context

Keep your AI agents informed with the latest dead code report:

clr map

4. Fix Dead Code

# Preview changes (dry run)
clr fix --dry-run

# Comment out instead of delete
clr fix --soft

# Actually remove (requires clean git)
clr fix --force

Features

Dead Code Detection

| Type | Description | |------|-------------| | unused_export | Exported symbols with no external references | | unused_import | Imports never used in the file | | zombie_file | Files never imported by others | | unreachable_function | Functions never called | | unused_type | Types/Interfaces never referenced | | unused_class | Classes never instantiated | | unused_enum | Enums never used |

Confidence Scoring

Not all dead code is equal. clr assigns confidence scores to minimize false positives:

| Score | Meaning | Recommendation | |-------|---------|----------------| | 0.8+ | High confidence | Safe to remove | | 0.5-0.8 | Medium confidence | Review recommended | | <0.5 | Low confidence | LLM judgment needed |

Factors that lower confidence:

• Dynamic imports (import(), require())
• Test files
• Entry points (index.ts, main.ts)
• Public API markers

AI Integration

clr is designed to work seamlessly with AI agents:

# Output JSON schema for LLM tool use
clr schema

# The JSON output is perfect for AI consumption
clr scan --format json --output dead-code.json

CLI Reference

clr - AI-native code maintenance tool

USAGE:
    clr <COMMAND>

COMMANDS:
    init     Initialize clr with AI context files
    scan     Scan for dead code
    map      Update AI context files with scan results
    fix      Remove or comment out dead code
    schema   Output JSON schema for LLM integration

OPTIONS:
    -v, --verbose         Enable verbose output
    -C, --directory <DIR> Working directory
    -h, --help            Print help
    -V, --version         Print version

clr scan

OPTIONS:
    -f, --format <FORMAT>      Output format [default: pretty]
                               [possible values: pretty, json, compact, tui]
    -e, --extensions <EXT>     File extensions to scan [default: ts,tsx,js,jsx]
    -i, --ignore <PATTERN>     Patterns to ignore (glob)
        --include-tests        Include test files in analysis
        --confidence <FLOAT>   Minimum confidence threshold [default: 0.5]
    -o, --output <FILE>        Output file (for json format)

clr fix

OPTIONS:
        --dry-run              Preview changes without modifying files
        --soft                 Comment out code instead of deleting
        --force                Force removal (requires clean git status)
        --confidence <FLOAT>   Only fix items above threshold [default: 0.8]
    -f, --files <FILES>        Specific files to fix

Configuration

Supported File Types

By default, clr scans: .ts, .tsx, .js, .jsx, .mjs, .cjs

# Scan only TypeScript
clr scan --extensions ts,tsx

Ignore Patterns

Default ignores: node_modules, dist, build, .git

# Add custom ignores
clr scan --ignore "**/*.test.ts,**/*.spec.ts,**/fixtures/**"

How It Works

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    clr Pipeline                              │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                              │
│  1. COLLECT        2. ANALYZE         3. DETECT             │
│  ┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐       ┌──────────┐          │
│  │FileWalker│────▶│   Oxc    │──────▶│Reference │          │
│  │ (rayon)  │     │  Parser  │       │  Graph   │          │
│  └──────────┘     └──────────┘       └──────────┘          │
│       │                │                   │                │
│       ▼                ▼                   ▼                │
│   1,847 files    AST Analysis       Dead Code Items        │
│    in 50ms       with exports/      with confidence        │
│                  imports            scores                  │
│                                                              │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

1. FileWalker — Parallel file traversal using rayon, respects .gitignore
2. Oxc Parser — Lightning-fast JavaScript/TypeScript AST parsing
3. Reference Graph — Cross-file analysis to find unused exports/imports

Benchmarks

Tested on a large TypeScript monorepo (50,000+ files):

| Tool | Time | Memory | |------|------|--------| | clr | 2.3s | 180MB | | ts-prune | 45s | 1.2GB | | knip | 38s | 890MB |

Benchmarks run on Apple M2, 16GB RAM

Programmatic API

Node.js

import { scan } from '@aspect/clr';

const result = await scan({
  root: './src',
  extensions: ['ts', 'tsx'],
  ignorePatterns: ['**/*.test.ts'],
  includeTests: false,
});

console.log(`Found ${result.items.length} dead code items`);

Rust

use clr::Scanner;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
    let scanner = Scanner::new("./src")
        .with_extensions(vec!["ts".into(), "tsx".into()])
        .with_confidence_threshold(0.8);

    let result = scanner.scan().await?;
    println!("Found {} issues", result.dead_code.len());
    Ok(())
}

Comparison

| Feature | clr | ts-prune | knip | unimported | |---------|-----|----------|------|------------| | Speed | Instant | Slow | Moderate | Moderate | | Confidence scoring | Yes | No | No | No | | AI integration | Native | No | No | No | | JSON schema | Yes | No | Partial | No | | Interactive TUI | Yes | No | No | No | | Zero config | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |

Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/aspect-build/clr.git
cd clr

# Install dependencies
cargo build

# Run tests
cargo test

# Run locally
cargo run -- scan --format pretty

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Built with Rust and Oxc for the Agentic era

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