Migrating from ts-unused-exports

ts-unused-exports reports exported symbols that are never used in a TypeScript project. rev-dep covers that with unusedExportsDetection, plus orphan files, dependencies, cycles, and architecture rules.

Why migrate

• Speed and a single pass. rev-dep is Go-based and runs every check at once - faster on large repos.
• One tool instead of several. ts-unused-exports only finds unused exports. rev-dep also covers orphan files, unused/missing dependencies, circular imports, module boundaries, and more.
• Autofix. rev-dep can remove the dead export for you.

What carries over, what changes

• Covered well: unused exported functions, variables, types, interfaces, enums.
• --findCompletelyUnusedFiles (files whose every export is unused) maps to rev-dep's orphanFilesDetection.
• Different model: ts-unused-exports reads your tsconfig files/includes; rev-dep traces from entry points, so define prodEntryPoints/devEntryPoints to keep public-API exports from being reported.

Feature mapping

ts-unused-exports	rev-dep
unused exports	unusedExportsDetection
--allowUnusedTypes / --allowUnusedEnums	ignoreTypeExports: true (types)
--excludeDeclarationFiles	ignoreFiles: ["**/*.d.ts"]
--ignoreFiles (regex)	ignoreFiles (globs)
--ignoreLocallyUsed	default (only cross-file usage counts)
--findCompletelyUnusedFiles	orphanFilesDetection
// ts-unused-exports:disable-next-line	ignore / ignoreExports in config
--exitWithCount	config run exits non-zero on findings

Translating your config

ts-unused-exports is CLI-driven:

ts-unused-exports tsconfig.json --excludeDeclarationFiles --allowUnusedTypes --ignoreFiles="\.stories\."

becomes a rev-dep.config.jsonc:

{
  "rules": [
    {
      "path": ".",
      "prodEntryPoints": ["src/index.ts"],
      "devEntryPoints": ["**/*.test.ts"],
      "unusedExportsDetection": {
        "enabled": true,
        "autofix": true,
        "ignoreTypeExports": true,
        "ignoreFiles": ["**/*.d.ts", "**/*.stories.tsx"]
      }
    }
  ]
}

--ignoreFiles takes regular expressions; rev-dep uses glob patterns. For per-export exceptions, use ignore/ignoreExports - see unused exports options.

Running it

# ts-unused-exports
npx ts-unused-exports tsconfig.json

# rev-dep
rev-dep config run
rev-dep config run --fix

Next steps

• Entry points determine which exports are "public" - set them first.
• Monorepo integration guide for per-workspace setup.