pubghost

Detect ghosts in your Flutter/Dart project:

• Unused dependencies in pubspec.yaml
• Unused classes/widgets in your app lib/
• Unused intl keys from .arb files (ignores generated l10n)

Fast, lightweight CLI you can run locally or in CI.

Features

• -d: (--deps) Scans lib/ imports to find dependencies declared in pubspec.yaml but never imported.
• -c: (--widgets) Finds classes defined in your app and reports ones never referenced anywhere else.
• -t: (--intl) Parses .arb files and reports keys not used in code via common localization access like S.of(context).keyName, AppLocalizations.current.keyName, or context.l10n.keyName. Generated l10n sources are ignored.

Installation

Add as a dev dependency:

dev_dependencies:
  pubghost: ^1.0.7

Then get packages:

dart pub get

Optionally, activate globally:

dart pub global activate pubghost

Usage

Run via Dart:

dart run pubghost --deps
dart run pubghost --widgets
dart run pubghost --intl

Or if globally activated:

pubghost --deps
pubghost --widgets
pubghost --intl

Commands

• --deps: Check for unused dependencies declared in pubspec.yaml.

See Configuration and Conventions to ignore specific dependencies.

• --widgets: Check for unused classes/widgets under your project lib/ directory.
• --intl: Check for .arb keys not referenced in your code. Generated l10n directories are excluded.

Output

• Success:
  • ✅ All packages are used.
  • ✅ All classes are used.
  • ✅ All intl keys are used.
• Findings:
  • ⚠️ Unused packages (N):
  • ⚠️ Unused classes (N):
  • ⚠️ Unused intl keys (N):

How it works

• Unused dependencies: Looks for import 'package:<dep>/...' in your lib/ Dart files. Any dependency in pubspec.yaml without a matching import is reported.
• Unused widgets: Lists classes defined in lib/, then searches combined project code (excluding tests) for references such as usage, generics, inheritance, mixins, and constructor calls.
• Unused intl: Reads .arb files, collects keys, then scans your code (excluding tests and generated l10n folders) for .keyName occurrences next to a localization object. Keys seen only in generated sources are not counted as “used.”

Configuration and Conventions

• Excludes scanning of:
  • test/
  • .dart_tool/, build/
  • gen_l10n/, l10n/generated/
• Only scans your project’s lib/ code for usage.
• Assumes common Flutter gen-l10n usage patterns:
  • S.of(context).myKey
  • AppLocalizations.of(context).myKey
  • AppLocalizations.current.myKey
  • context.l10n.myKey
• Supports the exclusion of specific dependencies and classes by adding a pubghost section in pubspec.yaml:

pubghost:
  ignore_dependencies:
    - flutter_launcher_icons
  ignore_classes:
    - ExactClassName           # Exact class name match
    - ".*Model$"               # Regex pattern: classes ending in "Model"
    - "^MyPrefix.*"            # Regex pattern: classes starting with "MyPrefix"

Limitations

• Heuristic-based scanning may produce false positives/negatives in advanced scenarios:
  • Dynamically constructed imports/usages
  • Reflection or code generation outside the excluded folders
  • Intl keys used through non-standard access patterns

CI

Add a simple CI job to keep your project tidy:

dart run pubghost --deps
dart run pubghost --widgets
dart run pubghost --intl

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Made with 💙 from Belgium.

License

MIT