Laurigates Claude Plugins Vulture Dead Code

Vulture and deadcode - Dead Code Detection

Tools for finding unused Python code including functions, classes, variables, imports, and attributes.

When to Use This Skill

Overview

Vulture (mature, confidence-based) and deadcode (newer, AST-based) both detect unused code but with different approaches:

Installation

# Install vulture
uv add --dev vulture

# Install deadcode (newer alternative)
uv add --dev deadcode

# Install both for comparison
uv add --dev vulture deadcode

Vulture - Confidence-Based Detection

Basic Usage

# Check entire project
vulture .

# Check specific files/directories
vulture src/ tests/

# Minimum confidence threshold (60-100%)
vulture --min-confidence 80 .

# Exclude patterns
vulture . --exclude "**/migrations/*,**/tests/*"

# Sort by confidence
vulture --sort-by-size .

# Generate whitelist of current issues
vulture . --make-whitelist > vulture_whitelist.py

Configuration (pyproject.toml)

[tool.vulture]
min_confidence = 80
paths = ["src", "tests"]
exclude = [
    "**/migrations/*",
    "**/__pycache__/*",
    ".venv/*"
]
ignore_decorators = [
    "@app.route",
    "@pytest.fixture",
    "@property",
    "@staticmethod",
    "@classmethod"
]
ignore_names = [
    "test_*",
    "setUp*",
    "tearDown*",
]

deadcode - AST-Based Detection

Basic Usage

# Check entire project
deadcode .

# Check specific files/directories
deadcode src/

# Verbose output
deadcode --verbose .

# Dry run (show what would be removed)
deadcode --dry-run .

# Show unreachable code
deadcode --show-unreachable .

# Generate configuration
deadcode --init

Configuration (pyproject.toml)

[tool.deadcode]
paths = ["src"]
exclude = [
    "tests/*",
    "**/__pycache__/*",
    "**/migrations/*",
]
ignore_names = [
    "test_*",
    "setUp",
    "tearDown",
    "main",
]
ignore_decorators = [
    "app.route",
    "pytest.fixture",
    "property",
    "staticmethod",
    "classmethod",
    "abstractmethod"
]
show_unreachable = false

Choosing Between Tools

Hybrid Approach

# Run both for comprehensive detection
vulture --min-confidence 80 .
deadcode .

Agentic Optimizations

Quick Reference

Vulture Flags

deadcode Flags

For detailed examples, advanced patterns, and best practices, see REFERENCE.md.

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