Import Cleaner

A Node.js tool to scan your project and automatically remove unused import statements.

Installation

# Install globally
npm install -g import-cleaner

# Or locally in your project
npm install --save-dev import-cleaner

Usage

Command Line

# Clean current directory
import-cleaner

# Clean specific directory
import-cleaner ./src

# Dry run (preview without making changes)
import-cleaner --dry-run

# Show detailed information about unused imports
import-cleaner --verbose

# Exclude additional directories
import-cleaner --exclude "temp,output,cache"

# Combine options
import-cleaner ./src --dry-run --verbose

Programmatic Usage

const { cleanUnusedImports } = require("import-cleaner");

const stats = cleanUnusedImports("./src", {
  extensions: [".js", ".jsx", ".ts", ".tsx"], // file extensions to scan
  recursive: true, // scan subdirectories
  dryRun: false, // set to true to preview without changes
  exclude: ["node_modules", ".git", "dist"], // directories to exclude
  verbose: true, // show detailed information
});

console.log(stats);
// {
//   filesScanned: 25,
//   filesModified: 8,
//   totalImportsRemoved: 15,
//   unusedImports: [
//     {
//       file: 'src/components/Button.js',
//       imports: [
//         { name: 'useState', source: 'react', isDefault: false },
//         { name: 'classNames', source: 'classnames', isDefault: true }
//       ]
//     }
//   ]
// }

Features

• Scans JavaScript and TypeScript files (.js, .jsx, .ts, .tsx)
• Identifies and removes unused import statements
• Keeps import statements that are actually used
• Works with ES6 named and default imports
• Recursive directory scanning
• Dry run mode to preview changes
• Verbose mode to show detailed information about unused imports
• Automatically excludes node_modules, .git, dist, and build directories

How It Works

Import Cleaner analyzes your code using a two-pass approach:

1. First pass: Collects all import statements and imported identifiers
2. Second pass: Tracks which identifiers are actually used in the code
3. Compares the two to identify unused imports
4. Removes unused imports while preserving code structure

Limitations

• Currently doesn't detect imports used only in type annotations
• Doesn't track dynamic imports or requires
• May not correctly analyze code with advanced patterns or non-standard usage

License

MIT