Known Issues

List of known issues and workarounds for exceptions thrown during a Knip run.

See handling issues to learn more about dealing with lint issues.

Exceptions from config files

An exception may be thrown when a Knip plugin loads a JavaScript or TypeScript configuration file such as webpack.config.js or vite.config.ts:

$ knip
Error loading .../vite.config.ts

Knip may load such files differently, in a different environment, with missing environment variables, missing path aliases, etcetera. Use --debug to locate the cause of the issue with more details.

Potential workarounds:

• Set path aliases for “Cannot find module” errors
• Set missing environment variable(s), potential solutions:
  • Use a helper package like dotenvx
  • KEY=VAL knip
  • node --env-file .env $(which knip)
• Disable loading the file by overriding the default config for that plugin.
  • Example: vite: { config: [] }
  • In a monorepo, be more specific like so: workspaces: { "packages/lib": { vite: { config: [] } } }
  • If this helps, add the file as an entry file for static analysis.
• Disable the related plugin.
  • Example: eslint: false
  • In a monorepo, be more specific like so: workspaces: { "packages/lib": { eslint: false } }
  • If this helps, add the file as an entry file for static analysis.
• As a last resort, ignore the workspace: ignoreWorkspaces: ["packages/lib"].

Path aliases in config files

Loading the configuration file (e.g. cypress.config.ts) for one of Knip’s plugins may give an error:

$ knip
Analyzing workspace ....
Error loading .../cypress.config.ts
Reason: Cannot find module '@alias/name'
Require stack:
- .../cypress.config.ts

Some tools (such as Cypress and Jest) support using TypeScript path aliases in the configuration file.

Potential workarounds:

• Rewrite the import in the configuration file to a relative import.
• Inject support with a module like tsx: NODE_OPTIONS="--import tsx" knip
• Or tsconfig-paths: NODE_OPTIONS="--import tsconfig-paths/register.js" knip
• Use Bun with knip-bun.
• See exceptions from config files for more potential workarounds.

Nx Daemon

In Nx projects you might encounter this error:

NX   Daemon process terminated and closed the connection

The solution is to disable the Nx Daemon:

NX_DAEMON=false knip