npm-watchdog 🐕

A cross-platform command-line tool to detect unused dependencies in JavaScript/TypeScript projects with a modern and stylish UI.

Description

npm-watchdog analyzes your project's source files (.js, .jsx, .ts, .tsx) and detects which packages listed in your package.json are not being used in the source code. It's like having a watchdog guarding your forgotten dependencies.

Cross-Platform Compatibility

npm-watchdog works on all major platforms:

• Windows
• macOS
• Linux

The tool is designed to handle path differences, file system operations, and other platform-specific issues automatically.

Modern UI Features

• Beautiful ASCII art header
• Colorful gradients and styled text
• Progress spinners while analyzing
• Boxed sections for better readability
• Tabular data presentation
• Cross-platform compatibility tweaks for terminals

Installation

Global installation (recommended)

npm install -g npm-watchdog

Local installation

npm install --save-dev npm-watchdog

Usage

Basic usage

# If installed globally
npm-watchdog

# If installed locally
npx npm-watchdog

Options

# Show help
npm-watchdog --help

# Export results in JSON format
npm-watchdog --json

# Ignore certain modules in the analysis
npm-watchdog --ignore axios,lodash

# Specify a different base path (useful for monorepo projects)
npm-watchdog --root ./packages/my-package

# Change language (English is default, Spanish is also available)
npm-watchdog --lang es

# Use minimal UI mode (no ASCII art, useful for CI/CD environments)
npm-watchdog --minimal

Multilanguage Support

npm-watchdog supports multiple languages:

• English (default): --lang en
• Spanish: --lang es

Example:

npm-watchdog --lang es

UI Modes

Full UI (default)

Beautiful ASCII art and styled output with animations and colors.

Minimal UI

npm-watchdog --minimal

Simplified output without the large ASCII art header. Useful for CI/CD environments or smaller terminals.

How it works

npm-watchdog:

1. Reads your package.json and extracts all dependencies (dependencies and devDependencies)
2. Recursively looks for all .js, .jsx, .ts, .tsx files in your project
3. Analyzes each file looking for:
   • require('module')
   • import xyz from 'module'
   • import * as xyz from 'module'
   • import 'module'
4. Compares the dependencies found with those listed in package.json
5. Reports packages that are not being used in any file

Requirements

• Node.js 12 or higher

Limitations

• Does not detect dynamic imports (require(variable))
• Does not analyze files with custom extensions
• Does not detect imports in comments or disabled code

License

MIT