CLI Arguments

General

--help

Shortcut: -h

Prints a summary of this page.

--version

Shortcut: -V

Print the version number.

--no-progress

Shortcut: -n

Don’t show dynamic progress updates. Progress is automatically disabled in CI environments.

--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

--use-tsconfig-files

Use tsconfig.json to define project files (override project patterns).

--tsConfig [file]

Shortcut: -t

Use an alternative path for the TypeScript configuration file.

Using -t jsconfig.json is also supported.

Default location: tsconfig.json

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_COLOR

The built-in reporters use the NO_COLOR friendly picocolors:

NO_COLOR=1 knip

Mode

--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

Provide alternative cache location.

Default location: ./node_modules/.cache/knip

--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.

--no-gitignore

Ignore .gitignore files.

--production

Lint only production source files. This excludes:

• entry files defined by plugins:
  • test files
  • configuration files
  • Storybook stories
• devDependencies from package.json

Read more at Production Mode.

--strict

Isolate workspaces and consider only direct dependencies. Implies production mode.

Read more at Production Mode.

--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 or node_modules may not cause an updated report.

Scope

--workspace [filter]

Select one or multiple workspaces (including its ancestor and dependent workspaces). The default behavior is to lint all configured workspaces.

Shortcut: -W

See filter workspaces for more details and examples.

--directory [dir]

Default: cwd (current directory)

Run the process from a different directory.

--exclude

Exclude provided issue types from report. Can be comma-separated or repeated.

Example:

knip --exclude enumMembers

--include

Report only provided issue types. Can be comma-separated or repeated.

Example:

knip --include files,dependencies
knip --include files --include dependencies

Available issue types when filtering output using --include or --exclude:

• files
• dependencies
• unlisted
• unresolved
• exports
• nsExports
• types
• nsTypes
• enumMembers
• namespaceMembers
• duplicates
• catalog

--dependencies

Shortcut to include all types of dependency issues:

--include dependencies,unlisted,binaries,unresolved,catalog

--exports

Shortcut to include all types of export issues:

--include exports,nsExports,types,nsTypes,enumMembers,namespaceMembers,duplicates

--files

Shortcut to include file issues:

--include files

--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,-internal
knip --tags=+custom

This way, you can either focus on or ignore specific tagged exports with tags you define yourself. This also works for individual enum and namespace 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

Fix

--fix

Read more at auto-fix.

--fix-type

Fix only issues of type, can be comma-separated or repeated.

More info about fixable types at issue types

--allow-remove-files

Allow Knip to remove files (with --fix).

--format

Format modified files after --fix using the local formatter.

Output

--preprocessor [preprocessor]

Preprocess the results before providing it to the reporter(s).

Can be repeated. Examples:

knip --preprocessor ./my-preprocessor.ts

knip --preprocessor preprocessor-package

Also see Reporters & Preprocessors.

--preprocessor-options [json]

Pass extra options to the preprocessor as JSON string.

knip --preprocessor ./preproc.ts --preprocessor-options '{"key":"value"}'

--reporter [reporter]

Available reporters:

• symbols (default)
• compact
• codeowners
• json
• codeclimate
• markdown
• disclosure
• github-actions

Can be repeated. Example:

knip --reporter compact

Also see Reporters & Preprocessors.

--reporter-options [json]

Pass extra options to the reporter (as JSON string):

Example:

knip --reporter codeowners --reporter-options '{"path":".github/CODEOWNERS"}'

--no-config-hints

Suppress configuration hints.

--treat-config-hints-as-errors

Exit with non-zero exit code (1) if there are any configuration hints.

--max-issues

Maximum number of issues before non-zero exit code. Default: 0

--max-show-issues

Maximum number of issues per type to display (does not affect exit code).

--no-exit-code

Always exit with code zero (0), even when there are lint issues.

The default exit codes:

Code	Description
0	Knip ran successfully, no lint issues
1	Knip ran successfully, but there is at least one lint issue
2	Knip did not run successfully due to bad input or internal error

Troubleshooting

--debug

Shortcut: -d

Show debug output.

--memory

knip --memory

(results)

 # heapUsed  heapTotal  freemem
-- --------  ---------  -------
 0    42.09      70.91  2251.00
 1   927.04    1042.58  1166.47
 2   973.29    1047.33  1160.92
 3   971.54    1079.83  1121.66
 4   997.80    1080.33  1120.34
 5  1001.88    1098.08  1100.72
 6  1038.69    1116.58  1100.72
 7  1082.12    1166.33  1100.72
 8  1145.46    1224.50  1100.72
 9  1115.82    1240.25  1100.72
10  1182.35    1249.75   973.05
11   637.32    1029.17   943.63
12   674.30    1029.33   943.39
13   682.24    1029.33   941.63
14   707.70    1029.33   937.48

Total running time: 4.3s

--memory-realtime

Use this if Knip crashes to still see memory usage info over time:

knip --memory-realtime

#  heapUsed  heapTotal  freemem
-  --------  ---------  -------
0     42.09      70.91  2251.00
1    927.04    1042.58  1166.47
...mem info keeps being logged...

(results)

--performance

Use this flag to get the count and execution time of potentially expensive functions in a table. Example:

$ knip --performance

(results)

Name                           size  min       max       median    sum
-----------------------------  ----  --------  --------  --------  --------
findReferences                  648     84.98   7698.61     96.41  70941.70
createProgram                     2   6295.84   7064.68   6680.26  13360.52
glob                              6      0.05    995.78    513.82   3150.87
findESLintDependencies            2      0.01     74.41     37.21     74.41
findGithubActionsDependencies     6      0.16     12.71      0.65     23.45
findBabelDependencies             2      0.00     38.75     19.37     38.75
...

Total running time: 5s

• name: the internal Knip function name
• size: number of function invocations
• min: the fastest invocation
• max: the slowest invocation
• median: the median invocation
• sum the accumulated time of all invocations

This is not yet available in Bun, since it does not support performance.timerify (GitHub issue).

--performance-fn

Limit the output of --performance to a single function to minimize the overhead of the timerify Node.js built-in and focus on that function alone:

$ knip --performance-fn resolveSync

(results)

Name         size   min   max   median   sum
-----------  -----  ----  ----  ------  ------
resolveSync  66176  0.00  5.69    0.00  204.85

Total running time: 12.9s

--trace

Trace exports to see where they are imported.

Also see Trace.

--trace-dependency [name]

Trace package or binary name to see where it’s referenced. Implies —trace.

--trace-export [name]

Trace export name to see where it’s imported. Implies —trace.

--trace-file [path]

Trace file to see where its exports are imported. Implies —trace.