Knip

Judgement

What it is

Developer tool

What it does

Finds unused files, dependencies and exports in JavaScript and TypeScript projects, with plugins that understand common frameworks and tools.

Adopt it when

A JavaScript or TypeScript codebase or monorepo has accumulated dead code and stale packages you want to remove safely.

Watch out

Unusual build setups can produce false positives, so review its findings before deleting code.

Ready for

Production-ready

Runs as

Command line

Built with

TypeScript and Node.js

How established

Established: started 4 years ago, latest release knip@6.44.2.

What the license allows

You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice.

Judged on 2026-11-06 from the project's README and GitHub data. The license and age lines are worked out directly.

Built from

Follow it down: Knip → TypeScript → Go → runs on a microchip

How compilers were built, back to punched paper tape

Open-source alternatives to Knip

1. 1
   Prettier prettier

   Prettier is an opinionated code formatter.

   Developer tool Production-ready A web team wants to stop arguing about formatting and use the formatter that nearly every editor and framework already supports.

   ★ 52k MIT JavaScript Active, pushed today
   
2. 2
   Ruff astral-sh

   An extremely fast Python linter and code formatter, written in Rust.

   Developer tool Production-ready You want to replace Flake8, isort and Black in a Python project with one tool that runs in a fraction of the time.

   ★ 50k MIT Rust Active, pushed today
   
3. 3
   Black psf

   The uncompromising Python code formatter

   Developer tool Production-ready A Python team wants formatting settled automatically and is not already using Ruff's compatible formatter.

   ★ 42k MIT Python Active, pushed yesterday
   
4. 4
   ShellCheck koalaman

   ShellCheck, a static analysis tool for shell scripts

   Developer tool Production-ready Your repositories contain shell scripts, especially in CI or deployment, and you want common mistakes caught before they run.

   ★ 40k GPL-3.0 Haskell Active, pushed today
5. 5
   ESLint eslint

   Find and fix problems in your JavaScript code.

   Developer tool Production-ready You need the JavaScript linter with the largest rule and plugin ecosystem, including framework-specific rules for React, Vue and others.

   ★ 28k MIT JavaScript Active, pushed today
   
6. 6
   Biome biomejs

   A toolchain for web projects, aimed to provide functionalities to maintain them. Biome offers formatter and linter, usable via CLI and LSP.

   Developer tool Production-ready You want to replace ESLint plus Prettier in a web project with a single fast tool and can live with its built-in rule set.

   ★ 26k Apache-2.0 Rust Active, pushed today
   
7. 7
   Oxc oxc-project

   ⚓ A collection of high-performance JavaScript tools.

   Developer tool Usable Linting is slow on a large JavaScript codebase and you want Oxlint alongside or instead of ESLint, or you build tooling that needs a fast parser.

   ★ 23k MIT Rust Active, pushed today
   
8. 8
   mypy python

   Optional static typing for Python

   Developer tool Production-ready A growing Python codebase uses type hints and you want the reference checker that most typing features land in first.

   ★ 21k See repository Python Active, pushed today