dep-scope

Florian BRUNIAUX · AI Founding Engineer @ Méthode Aristote 13 years from developer to CTO / VP Eng · Blog ↗ · Projects ↗

Symbol-level dependency analysis + LLM-ready migration prompts for TypeScript/JavaScript projects.

"Knip tells you what's unused. dep-scope tells you how you use what you keep, and generates the prompt to remove it."

When to use dep-scope

Good use cases:

• Legacy project audit: Finding lodash functions that now have native equivalents
• Library consolidation: Do we really need 3 icon libraries?
• Migration: Generate a context-aware prompt and let Claude Code do the refactoring
• Curiosity: "Which symbols from this 50KB library do we actually use?"

Not the right tool if:

• You just want unused deps → use Knip instead
• Your codebase is already well-maintained → dep-scope will mostly say "KEEP"

Quick Example

$ dep-scope scan

═══════════════════════════════════════════
  dep-scope Analysis Report
═══════════════════════════════════════════

Summary:
  Total dependencies: 45
  ✓ Keep:          38
  ↻ Recode Native: 3
  ✗ Remove:        2
  ⊕ Peer Dep:      4

Action Items:
  Remove (unused):
    ✗ moment
    ✗ has-flag

  Recode to native:
    ↻ lodash.debounce (1 symbol) → custom debounce function
    ↻ array-includes (1 symbol) → Array.prototype.includes
    ↻ left-pad (1 symbol) → String.prototype.padStart

How it compares

Recommendation: Use Knip for unused detection, dep-scope for deeper analysis and migration. They work well together (dep-scope auto-detects Knip if installed).

Installation

CLI (global):

npm install -g @florianbruniaux/dep-scope

Without installation:

npx @florianbruniaux/dep-scope scan

MCP Server (AI editors — no CLI needed):

Add to your editor's MCP config and the server runs on demand via npx. See the MCP Server section below for per-editor config snippets.

From source:

git clone https://github.com/FlorianBruniaux/node-dep-scope.git
cd node-dep-scope
npm install && npm run build && npm install -g .

Quick Start

cd /path/to/your/project

dep-scope init                        # configure dep-scope for your project (interactive)
dep-scope scan                        # full scan
dep-scope scan --root                 # scan full project, including scripts/ tools/ bin/
dep-scope scan --check-duplicates     # include duplicate detection
dep-scope scan --check-transitive     # surface transitive polyfills (e18e database)
dep-scope scan --each-workspace       # monorepo: scan each package individually
dep-scope migrate                     # generate migration prompts for all candidates
dep-scope migrate lodash              # target a specific package
dep-scope report -o ./audit.md        # markdown report

Setup: dep-scope init

Run dep-scope init before your first scan. The wizard detects your project and generates a config in 4 questions:

dep-scope init

  Detected: Next.js project
  Found dirs: src/, scripts/, app/

? Source directories to scan:
  ● Auto-detected: src/, scripts/, app/  (recommended)
  ○ Full project root (.) — includes everything
  ○ Choose directories manually...

? Include devDependencies in scan? (y/N)
? Symbol threshold for RECODE_NATIVE verdict: (5)
? Config format:
  ● .depscoperc.json  (simple JSON, recommended)
  ○ depscope.config.ts  (TypeScript with autocomplete)

✓ Created .depscoperc.json
  Preset: react  |  Dirs: src, scripts, app  |  Threshold: 5

Use -y to skip prompts in CI: dep-scope init --yes.

Getting accurate results

Auto-detection covers: src, app, lib, pages, components, hooks, server, scripts, tools, bin, cli. If your project has code elsewhere, pass --root to scan everything, or set srcPaths explicitly in .depscoperc.json:

{
  "srcPaths": ["src", "app", "scripts", "tools"]
}

False positive "unused" verdict? The package may be used in a directory outside the scan scope (scripts/, tools/, etc.). Run dep-scope scan --root to verify before removing anything. When a removal recommendation appears with a narrow scan scope, dep-scope will warn you.

Config file detection

dep-scope automatically scans config files at the project root to avoid false "unused" verdicts for packages referenced as strings — a common pattern for CLI tools, test runners, and framework plugins.

Detected automatically:

These packages will appear as INVESTIGATE (or KEEP if well-used) rather than REMOVE.

Opt-out — disable specific detectors in .depscoperc.json:

{
  "stringReferences": {
    "disable": ["storybook-config"]
  }
}

Available detector IDs: package-json-scripts, vitest-config, vite-config, next-config, storybook-config. Use "disable": "all" to turn off config scanning entirely.

Extend with custom detectors — in depscope.config.ts:

import { defineConfig, defineDetector } from "@florianbruniaux/dep-scope";

export default defineConfig({
  stringReferences: {
    detectors: [
      defineDetector({
        id: "my-tool-config",
        label: "my-tool.config.json",
        filePatterns: ["my-tool.config.json"],
        async detect(filePath, ctx) {
          // return StringReference[] for packages found in this file
          return [];
        },
      }),
    ],
  },
});

MCP Server

dep-scope exposes a Model Context Protocol server so AI editors (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf) can query your dependencies inline — no CLI, no markdown files, no copy-paste.

Listed on the official MCP Registry: io.github.FlorianBruniaux/dep-scope

Available tools

Setup

Add the following mcpServers entry to your editor's config. The server runs on demand via npx — no global install required.

Claude Code — ~/.claude.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dep-scope": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["--package=@florianbruniaux/dep-scope", "-y", "dep-scope-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop — ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dep-scope": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["--package=@florianbruniaux/dep-scope", "-y", "dep-scope-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor — ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dep-scope": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["--package=@florianbruniaux/dep-scope", "-y", "dep-scope-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Windsurf — ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dep-scope": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["--package=@florianbruniaux/dep-scope", "-y", "dep-scope-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Once connected, you can ask your AI editor to call scan_project or generate_migration_prompt directly mid-session without running any CLI command.

Documentation

• Commands reference
• Configuration
• AI prompts + Claude Code slash command
• MCP Server setup
• Programmatic API
• Architecture & internals

Requirements

• Node.js >= 18.0.0
• TypeScript/JavaScript project with package.json

Explore the ecosystem

These projects extend the workflow without duplicating this tool:

• Automate with claude-code-plugins: add symbol-level dependency analysis to code-quality workflows.
• Learn with Claude Code Ultimate Guide: choose between CLI and MCP and frame the quality check.

Browse the complete open-source galaxy

License

MIT