@berenddeboer/nx-knip

A self-inferring Nx plugin for Knip - find unused dependencies, exports, and files in your JavaScript/TypeScript projects.

Install

Install both the plugin and knip:

npm install --save-dev @berenddeboer/nx-knip knip

pnpm add --save-dev @berenddeboer/nx-knip knip

yarn add --dev @berenddeboer/nx-knip knip

bun add -D @berenddeboer/nx-knip knip

Usage

Plugin Setup

Add the plugin to your nx.json:

{
  "plugins": [
    {
      "plugin": "@berenddeboer/nx-knip",
      "options": {
        "targetName": "knip"
      }
    }
  ]
}

This will automatically add a knip target to all projects in your workspace.

Running Knip

Run knip for a single project:

nx knip my-project

Run knip for all affected projects:

nx affected -t knip

Or run it for all projects:

nx run-many -t knip

Executor Options

strict

Enable strict mode (implies --production). Defaults to false. When enabled, knip will:

• Verify isolation: workspaces should use strictly their own dependencies
• Include peerDependencies when finding unused or unlisted dependencies
• Report type-only imports listed in dependencies

You can enable it for all projects via the plugin options in nx.json:

{
  "plugins": [
    {
      "plugin": "@berenddeboer/nx-knip",
      "options": {
        "targetName": "knip",
        "strict": true
      }
    }
  ]
}

Or per-project in project.json:

{
  "targets": {
    "knip": {
      "options": {
        "strict": true
      }
    }
  }
}

env

Set environment variables for the knip process. This is useful when knip loads .ts files that throw on missing environment variables - you can provide dummy values so knip can analyze the files without errors.

Configure via targetDefaults in nx.json:

{
  "targetDefaults": {
    "knip": {
      "options": {
        "env": {
          "SQLITE_DATABASE_PATH": "/tmp/knip-dummy.db",
          "PF_ORG": "examples/demo"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Or per-project in project.json:

{
  "targets": {
    "knip": {
      "options": {
        "env": {
          "DATABASE_URL": "postgres://localhost/dummy"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

The provided environment variables are merged with the current process.env, so existing variables are preserved and the specified ones are added or overridden.

How it works

This plugin runs knip --workspace {projectRoot} from the workspace root for each project. This means:

1. It uses the --workspace flag to focus on a specific workspace
2. The workspace root knip.json configuration is used
3. If Bun is installed, the plugin automatically uses knip-bun for significantly better performance

Learn More

• Knip Documentation
• Nx Plugins