Easily find and remove old and heavy node_modules folders ✨

This tool allows you to list any node_modules directories in your system, as well as the space they take up. You can then select which ones you want to erase to free up space. Yay!

i18n

We're making an effort to internationalize the Npkill docs. Here's a list of the available translations:

Table of Contents

Features
Installation
Usage
- Multi-Select Mode
- Options
- Examples
- JSON Output
Set Up Locally
API
Roadmap
Known bugs
Contributing
Buy us a coffee
License

✔️ Features

Clear space: Get rid of old and dusty node_modules cluttering up your machine.
Last Workspace Usage: Check when was the last time you modified a file in the workspace (indicated in the last_mod column).
Very fast: NPKILL is written in TypeScript, but searches are performed at a low level, improving performance greatly.
Easy to use: Say goodbye to lengthy commands. Using npkill is as simple as reading a list of your node_modules, and pressing Del to get rid of them. Could it be any easier? ;)
Minified: It barely has any dependencies.

☁️ Installation

You don't really need to install it to use it! Simply use the following command:

$ npx npkill

Or if for some reason you really want to install it:

$ npm i -g npkill
# Unix users may need to run the command with sudo. Go carefully

NPKILL does not support node<v14. If this affects you you can use npkill@0.8.3

📋 Usage

$ npx npkill
# or just npkill if installed globally

By default, npkill will scan for node_modules starting at the path where npkill command is executed.

Move between the listed folders with ↓ ↑, and use Space or Del to delete the selected folder. You can also use j and k to move between the results.

You can open the directory where the selected result is placed by pressing o.

To exit, Q or Ctrl + c if you're brave.

Important! Some applications installed on the system need their node_modules directory to work and deleting them may break them. NPKILL will highlight them by displaying a ⚠️ to be careful.

Multi-Select Mode

This mode allows you to select and delete multiple folders at once, making it more efficient when cleaning up many directories.

Entering Multi-Select Mode

Press T to toggle multi-select mode. When active, you'll see a selection counter and additional instructions at the top of the results.

Controls

Space: Toggle selection of the current folder.
V: Start/end range selection mode.
A: Toggle select/unselect all folders.
Enter: Delete all selected folders.
T: Unselect all and back to normal mode.

Range Selection

After pressing V to enter range selection mode:

Move the cursor with arrow keys, j/k, Home/End, or page up/down
All folders between the starting position and current cursor position will be selected/deselected
Press V again to exit range selection mode

Options

ARGUMENT	DESCRIPTION
-p, --profiles	Allows you to select the profile (set of targets) to use. If no option is specified, the available ones will be listed.. (node* by default)*.
--config	Path to a custom .npkillrc configuration file. By default, npkill looks for `~/.npkillrc`.
-d, --directory	Set the directory from which to begin searching. By default, starting-point is .
-D, --delete-all	Automatically delete all node_modules folders that are found. Suggested to be used together with `-x`.
-e, --hide-errors	Hide errors if any
-E, --exclude	Exclude directories from search (directory list must be inside double quotes "", each directory separated by ',' ) Example: "ignore1, ignore2"
-f, --full	Start searching from the home of the user (example: "/home/user" in linux)
--size-unit	Set the unit for displaying folder sizes. (Available: auto, mb, gb). With auto, sizes < 1024MB are shown in MB (rounded), larger sizes in GB (with decimals).
-h, --help, ?	Show this help page and exit
-nu, --no-check-update	Don't check for updates on startup
-s, --sort	Sort results by: `size`, `path` or `last-mod`
-t, --target	Specify the name of the directories you want to search for (by default, it's 'node_modules'). You can define multiple targets separating with comma. Ej. `-t node_modules,.cache,`.

-x, --exclude-hidden-directories	Exclude hidden directories ("dot" directories) from search.
--dry-run	It does not delete anything (will simulate it with a random delay).
--json	Output results in JSON format at the end of the scan. Useful for automation and scripting.
--json-stream	Output results in streaming JSON format (one JSON object per line as results are found). Useful for real-time processing.
-v, --version	Show npkill version

Warning: In future versions some commands may change

Examples

Search node_modules directories in your projects directory:

npkill -d ~/projects

# other alternative:
cd ~/projects
npkill

List directories named "dist" and show errors if any occur:

npkill --target dist -e

List vendor directories in your projects directory, sort by size, and show size in gb:

npkill -d '~/more projects' --size-unit gb --sort size --target vendor

List node_modules in your projects directory, excluding the ones in progress and ignore-this directories:

npkill -d 'projects' --exclude "progress, ignore-this"

Automatically delete all node_modules that have sneaked into your backups:

npkill -d ~/backups/ --delete-all

Get results in JSON format for automation or further processing:

npkill --json > results.json

Stream results in real-time as JSON (useful for monitoring or piping to other tools):

npkill --json-stream | jq '.'

Save only successful results to a file, ignoring errors:

npkill --json-stream 2>/dev/null | jq -s '.' > clean-results.json

JSON Output

Npkill supports JSON output formats for automation and integration with other tools:

--json: Output all results as a single JSON object at the end of the scan
--json-stream: Output each result as a separate JSON object in real-time

For detailed documentation, examples, and TypeScript interfaces, see JSON Output Documentation.

Quick Examples:

# Get all results as JSON
npkill --json > results.json

# Process results in real-time
npkill --json-stream | jq '.result.path'

# Find directories larger than 100MB
npkill --json | jq '.results[] | select(.size > 104857600)'

📟 Set Up Locally

# -- First, clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/voidcosmos/npkill.git

# -- Navigate to the dir
cd npkill

# -- Install dependencies
npm install

# -- And run!
npm run start


# -- If you want to run it with some parameter, you will have to add "--" as in the following example:
npm run start -- -f -e

📑 API

The api allows you to interact with npkill from node to create your own implementations in your scripts (automations, for example).

You can check the basic API here or on the web (comming soon).

🔮 Roadmap

🐛 Known bugs 🐛

Sometimes, CLI is blocked while folder is deleting.
Some terminals that do not use TTY (like git bash in windows) do not work.
Sorting, especially by routes, can slow down the terminal when there are many results at the same time.
Sometimes, size calculations are higher than they should be.
(SOLVED) Performance issues when searching from high level directories (like / in linux).
(SOLVED) Sometimes text collapses when updating the cli.
(SOLVED) Analyzing the size of the directories takes longer than it should.

If you find any bugs, don't hesitate and open an issue :)

💞 Contributing

If you want to contribute check the CONTRIBUTING.md

☕ Buy us a coffee

We have developed npkill in our free time, because we are passionate about the programming sector. Tomorrow we would like to dedicate ourselves to this, but first, we have a long way to go.

We will continue to do things anyway, but donations are one of the many ways to support what we do.

Thanks!!

A huge thank you to our backers ❤️

Crypto alternative

btc: 1ML2DihUoFTqhoQnrWy4WLxKbVYkUXpMAX
bch: 1HVpaicQL5jWKkbChgPf6cvkH8nyktVnVk
eth: 0x7668e86c8bdb52034606db5aa0d2d4d73a0d4259

📜 License

MIT © Nya García Gallardo and Juan Torres Gómez

🐱🐤