ciach 0.2.0+1

Finds unused (never-referenced) declarations in a Dart/Flutter package by driving the Dart analysis server over LSP and querying textDocument/references.

example/README.md

Example

This directory is a small, self-contained Dart package (sample_pkg) with a deliberate mix of used and unused declarations, spread across several files so the report's per-file grouping actually has something to group. It doubles as the integration-test fixture, so it is a real, runnable demonstration of the tool.

File	Declarations it demonstrates
lib/greeting.dart	top-level functions, constants, and a mutable variable
lib/user.dart	constructors, fields, methods, and a getter/setter pair
lib/shapes.dart	an enum, a mixin, and an abstract class with an @override
lib/extensions.dart	an extension method and operator overloading
lib/orphans.dart	a class that is never referenced at all

Run the finder against it from the repository root:

$ dart run ciach example

Expected output:

lib/extensions.dart
  13:7   method  tripled  (public)
  27:20  method  Vector2.+  (public)
  30:20  method  Vector2.-  (public)

lib/greeting.dart
  15:6  function  danglingFunction  (public)
  18:6  function  _danglingPrivate  (private)
  24:7  variable  unusedConstant  (public)
  30:5  variable  staleCounter  (public)

lib/orphans.dart
  7:7   class        UnusedClass  (public)
  9:8   method       UnusedClass.orphanMethod  (public)
  16:3  constructor  Unconstructed.new  (public)

lib/shapes.dart
  12:3   enum    Direction.south  (public)
  18:3   enum    Direction.west  (public)
  27:10  method  Loud.whisper  (public)
  33:10  method  Animal.sound  (public)

lib/user.dart
  12:13  constructor  UsedClass.named  (public)
  27:14  property     UsedClass.shout  (public)
  36:8   method       UsedClass.unusedMethod  (public)
  39:13  field        UsedClass._unusedField  (private)

Found 18 unused declarations in 5 files (scanned 6 files, 44 declarations, ...s).

Things worth noticing:

• Findings are grouped by file, one section per file, in the order the files sort by path — that's what spreading the fixture across five files buys you here.
• Declarations that are referenced (e.g. UsedClass, registerHandlers, Direction.north, the mixin Loud) are not reported, no matter which file references them from.
• Constructors are reported as Class.named or Class.new.
• Dog.sound (an @override) is skipped by default; add --overrides to include it — which also reveals Animal.sound, the abstract method it implements.
• Vector2.+ and Vector2.- are reported even though + is called in bin/app.dart: the analysis server's reference search does not resolve infix operator syntax back to the operator's declaration. See the main README's Limitations section.
• Try --no-public to see only the highest-confidence, private dead code (_danglingPrivate and UsedClass._unusedField here).