Migrating from knip

knip finds unused files, exports, and dependencies in JavaScript/TypeScript projects. rev-dep covers that same core, adds architecture checks knip does not have, and runs as a single Go-powered pass.

Why migrate

• Speed. knip runs on Node; rev-dep is written in Go and runs every check in one parallel pass - up to 20x faster on large codebases, which keeps it cheap to run on every PR.
• More than unused code. knip focuses on unused files/exports/dependencies. rev-dep does that and enforces architecture - circular imports, module boundaries, restricted imports, import conventions, and dev-dependencies in production - so it can replace several tools at once.
• Built for monorepos. A single config runs per-workspace rules in parallel and resolves cross-package imports, with whole-repo context when you need it.

What carries over, what changes

• Covered well: unused files, unused exports, unused dependencies, unlisted (missing) dependencies, unresolved imports.
• rev-dep adds: circular imports, module boundaries, restricted imports, import conventions, and dev-dependencies-in-production.
• Not replaced: knip's more granular reports - unused class/enum members, namespace-level exports, duplicate exports, unused catalog entries, and missing/optional binaries - have no equivalent in rev-dep, which works at the file/export/dependency level.

Feature mapping

knip issue type	rev-dep check	Notes
dependencies	unusedNodeModulesDetection	Declared but unused dependencies.
devDependencies	unusedNodeModulesDetection	Unused devDependencies surface as unused declared modules.
unlisted	missingNodeModulesDetection	Imports not declared in package.json.
unresolved	unresolvedImportsDetection	Import requests that don't resolve.
exports	unusedExportsDetection	Unused exports.
types	unusedExportsDetection	Covered while ignoreTypeExports is false (the default).
files	orphanFilesDetection	Unused/unreachable files.
binaries	-	No equivalent.
catalog	-	No equivalent.
duplicates	-	No equivalent.
classMembers, enumMembers	-	rev-dep has no member-level detector.
nsExports, nsTypes	-	rev-dep has no namespace-member detector.
-	circularImportsDetection	New capability.
-	moduleBoundaries	New capability.
-	restrictedImportsDetection	New capability.
-	importConventions	New capability.
-	devDepsUsageOnProdDetection	New capability.

Translating your config

knip infers most things from your entry and project globs. rev-dep is rule-based: each rule targets a path (usually a workspace) and enables checks explicitly.

A typical knip.json:

{
  "entry": ["src/index.ts", "src/cli.ts"],
  "project": ["src/**/*.ts"],
  "ignore": ["**/*.stories.tsx"],
  "ignoreDependencies": ["husky", "@types/jest"]
}

becomes a rev-dep.config.jsonc:

{
  "rules": [
    {
      "path": ".",
      "prodEntryPoints": ["src/index.ts", "src/cli.ts"],
      "ignoreEntryPoints": ["**/*.stories.tsx"]
      "unresolvedImportsDetection": {
        "enabled": true
      },
      "missingNodeModulesDetection": {
        "enabled": true
      },
      "unusedNodeModulesDetection": {
        "enabled": true,
        "excludeModules": ["husky", "@types/jest"]
      },
      "orphanFilesDetection": {
        "enabled": true,
      },
      "unusedExportsDetection": {
        "enabled": true
      }
    }
  ]
}

Key translations:

knip option	rev-dep equivalent
entry	prodEntryPoints (and devEntryPoints for tests/tooling)
project	the rule's path - rev-dep discovers all files under it (respecting .gitignore and ignoreFiles)
workspaces	one entry in rules per package
ignoreDependencies	excludeModules on the node-modules checks
ignore	per-check ignoreFiles, or top-level ignoreFiles or ignoreEntryPoints
ignoreUnresolved	ignoreImports / ignoreFiles on unresolvedImportsDetection
paths	declared in tsconfig.json paths (rev-dep reads them automatically)

For per-check ignore options and the exact data shapes, see Ignoring files.

Running it

# knip
npx knip

# rev-dep
rev-dep config run
rev-dep config run --fix   # applies autofixes (unused exports, orphan files, import conventions)

Both exit non-zero when issues are found, so the CI swap is direct. See running checks and autofix.

Next steps

• Verify resolution first with unresolvedImportsDetection - see the monorepo integration guide.
• In a monorepo, run unused-exports and orphan-file checks at the root so cross-package usage is visible: orphan files and unused exports in shared packages.