Key Features  •   Installation  •   Practical Examples  •   CLI Reference

Dependency analysis and optimization toolkit for modern JavaScript and TypeScript projects.
Trace imports, find unused code, clean dependencies — all from a blazing-fast CLI.

Working in large JS/TS projects makes it difficult to answer simple but crucial questions:

• Which files depend on this file?
• Is this file even used?
• Which files does this entry point import?
• Do I have circular dependencies?
• Which packages in node_modules are unused?
• Which modules take the most disk space?

Rev-dep helps you understand the real structure of your codebase so you can debug issues faster, refactor safely, and keep your dependencies clean.

It's particularly useful for JavaScript projects without TypeScript or test coverage — places where answering question "What will break if I change this" is not straightforward

Rev-dep is designed for fast iteration and minimal, actionable results — no noise, just answers.

Built in Go for speed. Even on large codebases, rev-dep responds almost instantly.

You get exact file paths, import chains, and clear dependency relationships — the kind of information you can fix or clean up right away.

Works with mixed JS/TS projects, path aliases and thousands of files without configuration hassles.

Unused files, unused or missing dependencies, reverse-imports, entry point detection, node_modules insights, dependency paths — everything in one tool.

Rev-dep outperforms Madge, dpdm, dependency-cruiser, skott, knip, depcheck and other similar tools.

For large project with 500k+ lines of code and 6k+ source code files get checks as fast as:

Benchmark run on WSL Linux Debian Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-14900KF CPU @ 2.80GHz

• 🔍 Reverse dependency lookup — see all entry points that require a given file
• 🗂️ Entry point discovery
• 🧹 Dead file detection
• 📦 Unused / missing / used node modules / dependencies analysis
• 🔄 Circular imports/dependencies detection
• 🧭 Trace all import paths between files
• 📁 List all files imported by any entry point
• 📏 Count actual lines of code (excluding comments and blanks)
• 💽 Node modules disk usage & size analysis
• 💡 Works with both JavaScript and TypeScript
• ⚡ Built for large codebases

Install globally to use as a CLI tool:

yarn global add rev-dep

npm install -g rev-dep

pnpm global add rev-dep

A few instant-use examples to get a feel for the tool:

# Detect unused node modules
rev-dep node-modules unused

# Detect circular imports/dependencies
rev-dep circular

# List all entry points in the project
rev-dep entry-points

# Check which files an entry point imports
rev-dep files --entry-point src/index.ts

# Find every entry point that depends on a file
rev-dep resolve --file src/utils/math.ts

# Resolve dependency path between files
rev-dep resolve --file src/utils/math.ts --entry-point src/index.ts

Practical examples show how to use rev-dep commands to build code quality checks for your project.

rev-dep resolve --file path/to/file.ts

You’ll see all entry points that implicitly require that file, along with resolution paths.

rev-dep resolve --file path/to/file.ts --compact-summary

Shows how many entry points indirectly depend on the file.

rev-dep entry-points

Exclude framework entry points if needed using --result-exclude.

rev-dep files --entry-point path/to/file.ts

Useful for identifying heavy components or unintended dependencies.

1. List all files imported:

   rev-dep files --entry-point path/to/entry.ts
   

2. Identify suspicious files.

3. Trace why they are included:

   rev-dep resolve --file path/to/suspect --entry-points path/to/entry.ts --all
   

rev-dep circular

rev-dep node-modules unused

rev-dep node-modules missing

rev-dep node-modules dirs-size

Rev-dep@2.0.0 was reimplemented in Go from scratch to leverage it's concurrency features and better memory management of compiled languages.

As a result v2 is up to 37x faster than v1 and consumes up to 13x less memory.

To compare performance rev-dep was benchmarked with hyperfine using 8 runs per test, taking mean time values as a result. Benchmark was run on TypeScript codebase with 507658 lines of code and 5977 source code files.

Memory usage on Mac was measure using /usr/bin/time utility. Memory usage on Linux was not measured because I could't find reliable way to measure RAM usage on Linux. Subsequent runs had too much fluctuation.

V2 comes with bunch of new commands

• circular - detects circular dependencies in the project
• lines-of-code - counts actual lines of code in the project excluding comments and blank lines
• list-cwd-files - lists all files in the current working directory
• node-modules used - lists all used node modules
• node-modules unused - lists all unused node modules
• node-modules missing - lists all missing node modules
• node-modules installed - lists all installed node modules
• node-modules installed-duplicates - lists all installed node modules that exist in file system with the same version multiple times
• node-modules analyze-size - analyzes size of specific node modules and helps to identify space-hogging dependencies
• node-modules dirs-size - calculates cumulative files size in node_modules directories

Comparing to previous versions, these tsconfig features are not supported

If you tsconfig uses extends, and you have some paths defined in config being extended, paths from extended config won't be used during resolution

eg.

// tsconfig.json
{
  "extends": "./tsconfig.base.json",
  "paths": {
    "@/components": ["src/components/*"]
  }
}

// tsconfig.base.json
{
  "paths": {
    "@/utils": ["src/utils/*"]
  }
}

In that scenario imports with @/utils won't be resolved.

Why it's not supported ? I consider this typescript capability as an usage edge-case. I forgot to to implement it at the begging and I don't feel like investing more time now, before this package get some reasonable adoption and people will be actually requesting this feature.

Only first path will be used in resolution.

// tsconfig.json
{
  "paths": {
    "@/components": ["src/components/*", "src/components2/*"]
  }
}

Imports that should resolve to src/components2/* will be considered unresolved.

Why it's not supported? I consider this typescript capability as an anti-pattern. It introduces unnecessary ambiguity in module resolution. Implementing this would make code more complex, less maintainable and slower.

Importing rev-dep in JS/TS is no longer supported. Preferred way is to run rev-dep using child process.

Any other discrepancies between TypeScript module resolution and rev-dep should be considered as a bug.

• Linux x64
• MacOS Apple Silicon
• Windows x64

Go allows for cross-compiling, so I'm happy to build and distribute binaries for other platforms as well. Feel free to open an issue if you need support for another platform.

Detect circular dependencies in your project

Analyzes the project to find circular dependencies between modules. Circular dependencies can cause hard-to-debug issues and should generally be avoided.

rev-dep circular [flags]

rev-dep circular --ignore-types-imports

  -c, --cwd string             Working directory for the command (default "$PWD")
  -h, --help                   help for circular
  -t, --ignore-type-imports    Exclude type imports from the analysis
      --package-json string    Path to package.json (default: ./package.json)
      --tsconfig-json string   Path to tsconfig.json (default: ./tsconfig.json)

Discover and list all entry points in the project

Analyzes the project structure to identify all potential entry points. Useful for understanding your application's architecture and dependencies.

rev-dep entry-points [flags]

rev-dep entry-points --print-deps-count

  -n, --count                    Only display the number of entry points found
  -c, --cwd string               Working directory for the command (default "$PWD")
      --graph-exclude strings    Exclude files matching these glob patterns from analysis
  -h, --help                     help for entry-points
  -t, --ignore-type-imports      Exclude type imports from the analysis
      --package-json string      Path to package.json (default: ./package.json)
      --print-deps-count         Show the number of dependencies for each entry point
      --result-exclude strings   Exclude files matching these glob patterns from results
      --result-include strings   Only include files matching these glob patterns in results
      --tsconfig-json string     Path to tsconfig.json (default: ./tsconfig.json)

List all files in the dependency tree of an entry point

Recursively finds and lists all files that are required by the specified entry point.

rev-dep files [flags]

rev-dep files --entry-point src/index.ts

  -n, --count                  Only display the count of files in the dependency tree
  -c, --cwd string             Working directory for the command (default "$PWD")
  -p, --entry-point string     Entry point file to analyze (required)
  -h, --help                   help for files
  -t, --ignore-type-imports    Exclude type imports from the analysis
      --package-json string    Path to package.json (default: ./package.json)
      --tsconfig-json string   Path to tsconfig.json (default: ./tsconfig.json)

Count actual lines of code in the project excluding comments and blank lines

rev-dep lines-of-code [flags]

rev-dep lines-of-code

  -c, --cwd string   Directory to analyze (default "$PWD")
  -h, --help         help for lines-of-code

List all files in the current working directory

Recursively lists all files in the specified directory, with options to filter results.

rev-dep list-cwd-files [flags]

rev-dep list-cwd-files --include='*.ts' --exclude='*.test.ts'

      --count             Only display the count of matching files
      --cwd string        Directory to list files from (default "$PWD")
      --exclude strings   Exclude files matching these glob patterns
  -h, --help              help for list-cwd-files
      --include strings   Only include files matching these glob patterns

Analyze and manage Node.js dependencies

Tools for analyzing and managing Node.js module dependencies. Helps identify unused, missing, or duplicate dependencies in your project.

  rev-dep node-modules used -p src/index.ts
  rev-dep node-modules unused --exclude-modules=@types/*
  rev-dep node-modules missing --entry-points=src/main.ts

  -h, --help   help for node-modules

Calculates cumulative files size in node_modules directories

Calculates and displays the size of node_modules folders in the current directory and subdirectories. Sizes will be smaller than actual file size taken on disk. Tool is calculating actual file size rather than file size on disk (related to disk blocks usage)

rev-dep node-modules dirs-size [flags]

rev-dep node-modules dirs-size

  -c, --cwd string   Working directory for the command (default "$PWD")
  -h, --help         help for dirs-size

Find and optimize duplicate package installations

Identifies packages that are installed multiple times in node_modules. Can optimize storage by creating symlinks between duplicate packages.

rev-dep node-modules installed-duplicates [flags]

rev-dep node-modules installed-duplicates --optimize --size-stats

  -c, --cwd string   Working directory for the command (default "$PWD")
  -h, --help         help for installed-duplicates
      --isolate      Create symlinks only within the same top-level node_module directories. By default optimize creates symlinks between top-level node_module directories (eg. when workspaces are used). Needs --optimize flag to take effect
      --optimize     Automatically create symlinks to deduplicate packages
      --size-stats   Print node modules dirs size before and after optimization. Might take longer than optimization itself
      --verbose      Show detailed information about each optimization

List all installed npm packages in the project

Recursively scans node_modules directories to list all installed packages. Helpful for auditing dependencies across monorepos.

rev-dep node-modules installed [flags]

rev-dep node-modules installed --include-modules=@myorg/*

  -c, --cwd string                Working directory for the command (default "$PWD")
  -e, --exclude-modules strings   list of modules to exclude from the output
  -h, --help                      help for installed
  -i, --include-modules strings   list of modules to include in the output

Find imported packages not listed in package.json

Identifies packages that are imported in your code but not declared in your package.json dependencies.

rev-dep node-modules missing [flags]

rev-dep node-modules missing --entry-points=src/main.ts

  -n, --count                              Only display the count of modules
  -c, --cwd string                         Working directory for the command (default "$PWD")
  -p, --entry-points strings               Entry point file(s) to start analysis from (default: auto-detected)
  -e, --exclude-modules strings            list of modules to exclude from the output
  -b, --files-with-binaries strings        Additional files to search for binary usages. Use paths relative to cwd
  -m, --files-with-node-modules strings    Additional files to search for module imports. Use paths relative to cwd
      --group-by-file                      Organize output by project file path
      --group-by-module                    Organize output by npm package name
  -h, --help                               help for missing
  -t, --ignore-type-imports                Exclude type imports from the analysis
  -i, --include-modules strings            list of modules to include in the output
      --package-json string                Path to package.json (default: ./package.json)
      --pkg-fields-with-binaries strings   Additional package.json fields to check for binary usages
      --tsconfig-json string               Path to tsconfig.json (default: ./tsconfig.json)
      --zero-exit-code                     Use this flag to always return zero exit code

Find installed packages that aren't imported in your code

Compares package.json dependencies with actual imports in your codebase to identify potentially unused packages.

rev-dep node-modules unused [flags]

rev-dep node-modules unused --exclude-modules=@types/*

  -n, --count                              Only display the count of modules
  -c, --cwd string                         Working directory for the command (default "$PWD")
  -p, --entry-points strings               Entry point file(s) to start analysis from (default: auto-detected)
  -e, --exclude-modules strings            list of modules to exclude from the output
  -b, --files-with-binaries strings        Additional files to search for binary usages. Use paths relative to cwd
  -m, --files-with-node-modules strings    Additional files to search for module imports. Use paths relative to cwd
  -h, --help                               help for unused
  -t, --ignore-type-imports                Exclude type imports from the analysis
  -i, --include-modules strings            list of modules to include in the output
      --package-json string                Path to package.json (default: ./package.json)
      --pkg-fields-with-binaries strings   Additional package.json fields to check for binary usages
      --tsconfig-json string               Path to tsconfig.json (default: ./tsconfig.json)
      --zero-exit-code                     Use this flag to always return zero exit code

List all npm packages imported in your code

Analyzes your code to identify which npm packages are actually being used. Helps keep track of your project's runtime dependencies.

rev-dep node-modules used [flags]

rev-dep node-modules used -p src/index.ts --group-by-module

  -n, --count                              Only display the count of modules
  -c, --cwd string                         Working directory for the command (default "$PWD")
  -p, --entry-points strings               Entry point file(s) to start analysis from (default: auto-detected)
  -e, --exclude-modules strings            list of modules to exclude from the output
  -b, --files-with-binaries strings        Additional files to search for binary usages. Use paths relative to cwd
  -m, --files-with-node-modules strings    Additional files to search for module imports. Use paths relative to cwd
      --group-by-file                      Organize output by project file path
      --group-by-module                    Organize output by npm package name
  -h, --help                               help for used
  -t, --ignore-type-imports                Exclude type imports from the analysis
  -i, --include-modules strings            list of modules to include in the output
      --package-json string                Path to package.json (default: ./package.json)
      --pkg-fields-with-binaries strings   Additional package.json fields to check for binary usages
      --tsconfig-json string               Path to tsconfig.json (default: ./tsconfig.json)

Trace and display the dependency path between files in your project

Analyze and display the dependency chain between specified files. Helps understand how different parts of your codebase are connected.

rev-dep resolve [flags]

rev-dep resolve -p src/index.ts -f src/utils/helpers.ts

  -a, --all                     Show all possible resolution paths, not just the first one
      --compact-summary         Display a compact summary of found paths
  -c, --cwd string              Working directory for the command (default "$PWD")
  -p, --entry-points strings    Entry point file(s) to start analysis from (default: auto-detected)
  -f, --file string             Target file to check for dependencies
      --graph-exclude strings   Glob patterns to exclude files from dependency analysis
  -h, --help                    help for resolve
  -t, --ignore-type-imports     Exclude type imports from the analysis
      --package-json string     Path to package.json (default: ./package.json)
      --tsconfig-json string    Path to tsconfig.json (default: ./tsconfig.json)

Benchmark performed on TypeScript codebase with 6034 source code files and 518862 lines of code.

Benchmark performed on MacBook Pro with Apple M1 chip, 16GB of RAM and 256GB of Storage. Power save mode off.

Benchmark performed with hyperfine using 8 runs per test and 4 warm up runs, taking mean time values as a result. If single run was taking more than 10s, only 1 run was performed.

rev-dep circular check is 12 times faster than the fastest alternative❗

Some of the terms used in the problem space that rev-dep covers can be confusing. Here is a small glossary to help you navigate the concepts.

A dependency can be understood literally. In the context of a project’s dependency graph, it may refer to:

• a node module / package (a package is a dependency of a project or file), or
• a source code file (a file is a dependency of another file if it imports it).

An entry point is a source file that is not imported by any other file. It can represent:

• the main entry of the application
• an individual page or feature
• configuration or test bootstrap files

— depending on the project structure.

A file is considered unused or dead when:

• it is an entry point (nothing imports it), and
• running it does not produce any meaningful output or side effect.

In practice, such files can often be removed safely.

A circular dependency occurs when a file directly or indirectly imports itself through a chain of imports.

This can lead to unpredictable runtime behavior, uninitialized values, or subtle bugs. However, circular dependencies between TypeScript type-only imports are usually harmless.

Files that import a given file. Useful for answering: "What breaks if I change or delete this file?"

A visual representation of how files or modules import each other.

A module that your code imports but is not listed in package.json.

A dependency listed in package.json that is never imported in the source code.

The top-level directory used as the starting point for dependency analysis.

I hope that this small piece of software will help you discover and understood complexity of your project hence make you more confident while refactoring. If this tool was useful, don't hesitate to give it a ⭐!