Node JS - Dependencies Cleaner

dephelper is a tool designed to help developers manage unused and outdated dependencies in their Node.js projects. It allows you to detect unused dependencies, interactively uninstall them, and automatically update your package.json file. Additionally, it can check for outdated dependencies and update them. The tool also provides options to save a list of uninstalled dependencies for future reference.

Features

• Detect unused dependencies using depcheck.
• Check for outdated dependencies and update them using npm-check-updates.
• Interactively uninstall all or selected unused dependencies.
• Automatically update your package.json file after uninstalling or updating dependencies.
• Save the list of uninstalled dependencies for future reference.
• Optionally, save a list of remaining unused dependencies if you choose not to uninstall all of them.

Installation

To install dephelper globally, use npm:

npm install -g dephelper

Usage

Simply navigate to the root of your Node.js project and run:

dephelper

Command Line Options

• --uninstall-all: Automatically uninstall all unused dependencies without prompting.

Interactive Prompts:

1. Detect Unused Dependencies: The tool will list all unused dependencies in your project.
2. Choose Action: You can choose to:
   • Uninstall all unused dependencies.
   • Uninstall some of the unused dependencies (you can select which ones).
   • Save the list of remaining unused dependencies without uninstalling.
   • Check for outdated dependencies and update them.
   • Do nothing and exit.
3. Save Uninstalled Dependencies: If you choose to uninstall dependencies (all or some), the tool will automatically save the list of those uninstalled dependencies in unused-dependencies.json.
4. Check for Outdated Dependencies: You can choose to check for outdated dependencies and automatically update them in your package.json.

Logs

• The tool logs all actions (uninstalls, updates to package.json, etc.) to dephelper.log.