CLI Arguments
GeneralSection titled “General”
--help
Section titled “--help”Shortcut: -h
Prints a summary of this page.
--version
Section titled “--version”Shortcut: -V
Print the version number.
--no-progress
Section titled “--no-progress”Shortcut: -n
Don’t show dynamic progress updates. Progress is automatically disabled in CI environments.
knip-bun
Section titled “knip-bun”Run Knip using the Bun runtime (instead of Node.js + jiti).
knip-bun
This is equal to bunx --bun knip
Requires Bun to be installed. Also see known issues for the type of issues this might help with.
NO_COLORSection titled “NO_COLOR”
The default reporters use the NO_COLOR friendly picocolors:
NO_COLOR=1 knip
TroubleshootingSection titled “Troubleshooting”
--debug
Section titled “--debug”Shortcut: -d
Show debug output.
--performance
Section titled “--performance”Use this flag to get the count and execution time of potentially expensive functions in a table. Example:
Name size min max median sum----------------------------- ---- -------- -------- -------- --------findReferences 648 84.98 7698.61 96.41 70941.70createProgram 2 6295.84 7064.68 6680.26 13360.52glob 6 0.05 995.78 513.82 3150.87findESLintDependencies 2 0.01 74.41 37.21 74.41findGithubActionsDependencies 6 0.16 12.71 0.65 23.45findBabelDependencies 2 0.00 38.75 19.37 38.75...
Total running time: 5s (mem: 631.27MB)
name
: the internal Knip function namesize
: number of function invocationsmin
: the fastest invocationmax
: the slowest invocationmedian
: the median invocationsum
the accumulated time of all invocations
This is not yet available in Bun, since it does not support
performance.timerify
(GitHub issue).
--trace
Section titled “--trace”Trace exports to see where they are imported.
Also see Trace.
--trace-export [name]
Section titled “--trace-export [name]”Trace export name to see where it’s imported. Implies —trace.
--trace-file [path]
Section titled “--trace-file [path]”Trace file to see where its exports are imported. Implies —trace.
ConfigurationSection titled “Configuration”
--config [file]
Section titled “--config [file]”Use an alternative path for the configuration file. Default locations:
knip.json
knip.jsonc
.knip.json
.knip.jsonc
knip.js
knip.ts
package.json#knip
Shortcut: -c
--tsConfig [file]
Section titled “--tsConfig [file]”Shortcut: -t
Use an alternative path for the TypeScript configuration file.
Using -t jsconfig.json
is also supported.
Default location: tsconfig.json
--workspace [dir]
Section titled “--workspace [dir]”Lint a single workspace including its ancestor and dependent workspaces. The default behavior is to lint all configured workspaces.
Shortcut: -W
--directory [dir]
Section titled “--directory [dir]”Default: cwd
(current directory)
Run the process from a different directory.
--no-gitignore
Section titled “--no-gitignore”Ignore .gitignore
files.
--include-entry-exports
Section titled “--include-entry-exports”When a repository is self-contained or private, you may want to include entry files when reporting unused exports:
knip --include-entry-exports
Also see includeEntryExports.
--include-libs
Section titled “--include-libs”Getting false positives for exports consumed by external libraries? Try the
--include-libs
flag:
knip --include-libs
Also see external libs.
--isolate-workspaces
Section titled “--isolate-workspaces”By default, Knip optimizes performance using workspace sharing to existing
TypeScript programs, based on the compatibility of their compilerOptions
. This
flag disables this behavior and creates one program per workspace, which is
slower but memory is spread more evenly over time.
--production
Section titled “--production”Lint only production source files. This excludes:
- entry files defined by plugins:
- test files
- configuration files
- Storybook stories
devDependencies
frompackage.json
Read more at Production Mode.
--strict
Section titled “--strict”Isolate workspaces and consider only direct dependencies. Implies production mode.
Read more at Production Mode.
Read more at auto-fix.
--cache
Section titled “--cache”Enable caching.
Consecutive runs are 10-40% faster as the results of file analysis (AST traversal) are cached. Conservative. Cache strategy based on file meta data (modification time + file size).
--cache-location
Section titled “--cache-location”Provide alternative cache location.
Default location: ./node_modules/.cache/knip
--watch
Section titled “--watch”Watch current directory, and update reported issues when a file is modified, added or deleted.
Watch mode focuses on imports and exports in source files. During watch mode,
changes in package.json
and/or node_modules
are not supported.
FiltersSection titled “Filters”
Available issue types when filtering output using --include
or
--exclude
:
files
dependencies
optionalPeerDependencies
unlisted
unresolved
exports
nsExports
classMembers
types
nsTypes
enumMembers
duplicates
--exclude
Section titled “--exclude”Exclude provided issue types from report. Can be comma-separated or repeated.
Example:
knip --exclude classMembers,enumMembersknip --exclude classMembers --exclude enumMembers
--include
Section titled “--include”Report only provided issue types. Can be comma-separated or repeated.
Example:
knip --include files,dependenciesknip --include files --include dependencies
--dependencies
Section titled “--dependencies”Shortcut to include all types of dependency issues:
--include dependencies,optionalPeerDependencies,unlisted,binaries,unresolved
--exports
Section titled “--exports”Shortcut to include all types of export issues:
--include exports,nsExports,classMembers,types,nsTypes,enumMembers,duplicates
--experimental-tags
Section titled “--experimental-tags”Deprecated. Use —tags instead.
--tags
Section titled “--tags”Exports can be tagged with known or arbitrary JSDoc/TSDoc tags:
/** * Description of my exported value * * @type number * @internal Important matters * @lintignore */export const myExport = 1;
And then include (+
) or exclude (-
) these tagged exports from the report
like so:
knip --tags=-lintignore,-internalknip --tags=+custom
This way, you can either focus on or ignore specific tagged exports with tags you define yourself. This also works for individual class or enum members.
The default directive is +
(include) and the @
prefix is ignored, so the
notation below is valid and will report only exports tagged @lintignore
or
@internal
:
knip --tags @lintignore --tags @internal
Reporters & PreprocessorsSection titled “Reporters & Preprocessors”
--reporter [reporter]
Section titled “--reporter [reporter]”Available reporters:
symbols
(default)compact
codeowners
json
markdown
Can be repeated. Example:
knip --reporter compact
Also see Reporters & Preprocessors.
--reporter-options [json]
Section titled “--reporter-options [json]”Pass extra options to the preprocessor (as JSON string, see —reporter-options example)
Example:
knip --reporter codeowners --reporter-options '{"path":".github/CODEOWNERS"}'
--preprocessor [preprocessor]
Section titled “--preprocessor [preprocessor]”Preprocess the results before providing it to the reporters.
Can be repeated. Examples:
knip --preprocessor ./my-preprocessor.ts
knip --preprocessor preprocessor-package
--preprocessor-options [json]
Section titled “--preprocessor-options [json]”Pass extra options to the preprocessor as JSON string.
knip --preprocessor ./preproc.ts --preprocessor-options '{"key":"value"}'
Also see Reporters & Preprocessors.
Exit codeSection titled “Exit code”
The default exit codes:
Code | Description |
---|---|
0 | Knip ran successfully, no lint issues |
1 | Knip ran successfully, but there is at least one lint issues |
2 | Knip did not run successfully due to bad input or internal error |
--no-exit-code
Section titled “--no-exit-code”Always exit with code zero (0
), even when there are lint issues.
--max-issues
Section titled “--max-issues”Maximum number of issues before non-zero exit code. Default: 0
--no-config-hints
Section titled “--no-config-hints”Suppress configuration hints.
--treat-config-hints-as-errors
Section titled “--treat-config-hints-as-errors”Exit with non-zero code (1
) if there are any configuration hints.
ISC License © 2024 Lars Kappert