dead-code-ai

A static analyzer that finds semantically useless code — not just syntactically unused variables (ESLint already does that).

$ npx dead-code-ai src/

What it finds that ESLint can't

| Pattern | Example | |---|---| | Result computed, never used | const x = heavyFn(); return otherThing; | | Condition always true/false | if (env === 'prod' && env !== 'prod') | | Argument never referenced | function add(a, b, c) { return a + b; } | | Object built, never read | const obj = {a: 1}; doSomethingElse(); | | Loop result discarded | items.forEach(x => total += x); return 0; | | Immediate reassign before read | let x = compute(); x = 0; use(x); | | Redundant double-computation | validate(data); validate(data); save(data); |

ESLint catches let x = 1; with no usage. dead-code-ai catches semantic waste — code that runs but whose result is meaningless in context.

Install

npm install -g dead-code-ai
# or use directly
npx dead-code-ai

Usage

# Analyze current directory
dead-code-ai

# Analyze specific files or directories
dead-code-ai src/ lib/utils.ts

# Only report high-severity issues
dead-code-ai --min-severity high src/

# Output JSON (for CI integration)
dead-code-ai --json src/ > report.json

# Custom extensions
dead-code-ai --ext .ts,.tsx src/

Setup

Get a free API key at console.groq.com and set it:

export GROQ_API_KEY=gsk_...

Or pass it inline:

dead-code-ai --key gsk_... src/

CI Integration

# .github/workflows/dead-code.yml
- name: Check for semantic dead code
  run: npx dead-code-ai --min-severity high --json src/
  env:
    GROQ_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.GROQ_API_KEY }}

How it works

1. Parse — Babel AST extracts every function/method in your codebase
2. Batch — Functions are grouped into batches of 6 to minimize API calls
3. Analyze — Each batch is sent to llama-3.3-70b-versatile via Groq with a strict prompt focused on semantic analysis
4. Report — Findings are printed with file, line, severity, and the exact problematic snippet

Options

| Flag | Default | Description | |---|---|---| | --key | $GROQ_API_KEY | Groq API key | | --ext | .js,.jsx,.ts,.tsx,.mjs,.cjs | File extensions to analyze | | --min-severity | low | Minimum severity: high, medium, low | | --json | off | Output raw JSON instead of formatted output |

Severity levels

• ● high — Code that provably does nothing (always-false branch, result always discarded)
• ◆ medium — Code that likely does nothing in most contexts
• ○ low — Code that is suspicious and worth reviewing

Supported languages

• JavaScript (.js, .mjs, .cjs)
• TypeScript (.ts)
• React (.jsx, .tsx)

License

MIT — built by iamadhitya1