Configuration Hints

Knip emits configuration hints to help keep your configuration file tidy and reduce drift.

They’re warnings by default, not lint findings. But addressing the hints might improve results significantly. The hints on this page are sorted by impact/importance (most impactful first).

Use --treat-config-hints-as-errors or treatConfigHintsAsErrors to make any configuration hint result in a non-zero exit code and fail CI.

Unconfigured projects

Too many unused files in a single workspace-codebase, caused by a missing configuration file or incomplete configuration:

Create knip.json configuration file, and add entry and/or refine project files (42 unused files)

Or if you have a config file:

Add entry and/or refine project files (42 unused files)

Solution: Add and refine entry and/or project patterns.

Related resources:

• Configuration
• Monorepos & Workspaces

Unconfigured workspaces

Too many unused files in a monorepo, caused by a missing configuration file or incomplete configuration:

Create knip.json configuration file with workspaces["packages/app"] object (42 unused files)

Or if you have a config file:

Add entry and/or refine project files in workspaces["packages/app"] (42 unused files)

Solution: add a workspaces object to configuration. Add and refine entry and/or project patterns. For instance, the example message translates to configuration like this:

{
  "workspaces" {
    "packages/app": {
      "entry": ["src/App.tsx"],
      "project": ["src/**/*.ts"]
    }
  }
}

Related resources:

• Configuring Project Files
• Monorepos & Workspaces

Top-level entry/project

In monorepos, Knip uses only entry and project under workspaces. The top-level keys with the same name are ignored.

Remove, or move unused top-level entry to one of "workspaces"
Remove, or move unused top-level project to one of "workspaces"

Solution: Remove top-level entry and project keys, use these options in workspaces instead.

{
  "entry": ["src/App.tsx"], // move entry/project from here... ↴
  "project": ["src/**/*.ts"],
  "workspaces": {
    ".": {
      "entry": ["src/App.tsx"], // ...to the correct workspace(s) ↲
      "project": ["src/**/*.ts"],
    },
  },
}

Unused entry in ignore group

An entry of an ignore list is no longer needed, remove it.

Remove from ignoreWorkspaces
Remove from ignoreDependencies
Remove from ignoreBinaries
Remove from ignoreUnresolved

Solution: Remove the entry from the array.

Useless patterns

A glob pattern in entry or project does not match any files.

Refine entry pattern (no matches)
Refine project pattern (no matches)

Solution: Refine or remove the entry or project entry.

Redundant patterns

A glob/pattern is redundant, because it’s already covered by defaults or added by an enabled plugin.

Remove redundant entry pattern
Remove redundant project pattern

Solution: Remove the entry or project entry.

Missing package entry file

Package entry file not found

Solution: Refine or remove the entry in package.json.