deps-analyzer

What This Skill Does

The Deps Analyzer skill serves as an intelligent auditor for your project's package.json file. It effectively scans your codebase to identify unused dependencies that contribute to "bloat" and flags outdated packages that may pose security risks or compatibility issues. By leveraging Node.js environment analysis and passing results through GPT-4o-mini, the tool provides human-readable explanations for each dependency, helping you understand why a package is considered redundant or stale. This automated cleanup process helps reduce installation times, shrinks bundle sizes, and streamlines maintenance for both new and legacy projects.

Installation

This skill is part of the LXGIC Dev Toolkit and is designed for immediate use without local installation. To add this capability to your OpenClaw environment, use the command: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/lxgicstudios/ai-deps. Ensure you have Node.js 18+ installed and the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable set in your system path, as the analyzer requires this key to process the analysis via GPT-4o-mini.

Use Cases

Use this tool when you inherit a messy project with mystery dependencies that you are afraid to remove manually. It is ideal for developers looking to optimize their CI/CD pipelines by removing unnecessary weight from the build process. Furthermore, if you are preparing for a major framework upgrade, running this tool provides a clean slate by ensuring all listed packages are currently utilized and up-to-date. It is also a lifesaver for developers struggling with high npm audit warning counts who need a prioritized list of what to update versus what to remove entirely.

Example Prompts

1. "Analyze my current project and tell me which dependencies are dead weight that I can safely remove."
2. "Run the dependency analyzer on my frontend directory and provide a prioritized plan for updating vulnerable packages."
3. "Check for unused dependencies in this repository and auto-fix the package.json file where possible."

Tips & Limitations

Always run this tool in a version-controlled environment so you can roll back changes if a dynamically loaded dependency is incorrectly flagged as unused. While the tool is highly accurate at detecting static imports, it might occasionally miss dependencies required by dynamic imports or specific config files. For the best results, always run npm install immediately after applying fixes to ensure your lockfile is consistent with the updated package.json.