configure-knip

name	configure-knip
description	Set up and optimize Knip configuration to find unused files, dependencies, and exports. Use when configuring knip.json or cleaning up a JavaScript or TypeScript codebase.

Configure Knip

Set up and iteratively optimize Knip configuration to find unused files, dependencies, exports, and types.

Setup

Ensure the @knip/mcp MCP server is registered in your AI coding agent:

npx -y @knip/mcp

This provides three MCP capabilities:

• knip-configure prompt — guided workflow for setup and optimization
• knip-run tool — runs analysis, returns configuration hints and issues
• knip-docs tool — fetches Knip documentation by topic

Task Instructions

1. If the MCP server is not available, register it with your agent
2. Use the knip-configure MCP prompt — it contains the full workflow:
   • Reads essential docs via knip-docs
   • Runs analysis via knip-run
   • Iterates on knip.json until hints are resolved and false positives minimized

Core Principles

• Configure Knip properly before jumping to conclusions about false positives
• Run Knip to get configuration hints and issues
• Address the hints by adjusting Knip configuration (knip.json)
• Repeat until hints are gone and false positives are minimized

Configuration Review Hints

• Never use "ignore" patterns (hides real issues!), always prefer specific solutions; other ignore* options are allowed
• Remove ignore patterns that don't match any files
• Remove redundant ignore patterns — Knip respects .gitignore (node_modules, dist, build, .git)
• Remove entry patterns covered by config defaults and auto-detected plugins
• Config files (e.g. vite.config.ts) showing as unused → try enable or disable the plugin explicitly ({ vite: true })
• Unresolved imports from path aliases: add paths to Knip config (tsconfig.json semantics)
• Dependencies matching Node.js builtins: add to ignoreDependencies (e.g. buffer, process)
• Many unused exported types → consider ignoreExportsUsedInFile: { interface: true, type: true }