Jan 31, 2026

Level 63

Remove unused packages to get the smaller application size

Hello,

Hmmm ... a client asks me if it's possible to reduce the size of a Laravel / VueJS application by removing all unused packages, so that it gets the smaller size possible.

The PHP and NodeJS packages in the vendor and node_modules folder are not all used, but sure they are dependencies. I think it's a very bad idea to try to remove some packages manually.

2 questions :

is it a good idea to remove the unused packages ?
if yes, is there any package to do that ?

Thanks for your help.

LaryAI

2 months ago

Level 58

Absolutely, this is a common question for teams deploying Laravel/VueJS applications. Here are direct answers to your questions:

Is it a good idea to remove unused packages?

Yes, but only if "unused" means the package is not required (not referenced in your codebase nor as a dependency of another package you use). Removing required packages can break your application. So, it needs to be done carefully and systematically, not manually deleting folders from vendor/ or node_modules/.

Is there a safe way or package to help with this?

For PHP/Laravel (Composer packages):

Use composer unused:
This tool analyzes your codebase and tells you which Composer packages are installed but are not actually used by your project.

Installation:
```
composer global require composer-unused/composer-unused
```
Usage:
```
composer unused
```
This will list all unused composer packages. You can then remove them using:
```
composer remove <package-name>
```

For Node.js/VueJS (npm/yarn packages):

Use depcheck:
This tool checks for unused npm dependencies.

Installation:
```
npm install -g depcheck
```
Usage (from your project directory):
```
depcheck
```
This will show a list of unused dependencies and devDependencies. You can then remove them with:
```
npm uninstall <package-name>
```
or
```
yarn remove <package-name>
```

Best Practices:

Always commit your current version (or make a backup) before removing packages, so you can recover if needed.
Sometimes these tools can give false positives, especially for packages loaded dynamically or used in artisan commands/config files. Review the suggestions before removal.

Summary Code:

Composer (PHP/Laravel):

composer global require composer-unused/composer-unused
composer unused
composer remove <package-name>

NPM/Yarn (Node/Vue):

npm install -g depcheck
depcheck
npm uninstall <package-name>

Note: Never remove packages directly from vendor or node_modules — always use the relevant package manager to keep your dependency tree healthy.

If you need guidance interpreting the output of these tools, or want to automate post-removal testing, let me know!

vincent15000

2 months ago

Level 63

composer-unused seems to be interesting, but it seems that it scans only the composer packages and not all the packages in the vendor folder.

jlrdw

2 months ago

Best Answer

Level 75

Just don't remove the standard packages that come in the vendor folder. However development only packages I always remove for production, but I'm sure you knew this already.

These I delete from composer when installing on production:

    "require-dev": {
        "fakerphp/faker": "^1.23",
        "laravel/pail": "^1.2.2",
        "laravel/pint": "^1.24",
        "laravel/sail": "^1.41",
        "mockery/mockery": "^1.6",
        "nunomaduro/collision": "^8.6",
        "phpunit/phpunit": "^11.5.50"
    },

On these, do you use all of them?

{
    "$schema": "https://www.schemastore.org/package.json",
    "private": true,
    "type": "module",
    "scripts": {
        "build": "vite build",
        "dev": "vite"
    },
    "devDependencies": {
        "@tailwindcss/vite": "^4.0.0",
        "axios": "^1.11.0",
        "concurrently": "^9.0.1",
        "laravel-vite-plugin": "^2.0.0",
        "tailwindcss": "^4.0.0",
        "vite": "^7.0.7"
    }
}

1 like

vincent15000

2 months ago

Level 63

Thank you for your answer.

Snapey

2 months ago

Level 122

what problem is the client trying to fix?

1 like

vincent15000

2 months ago

Level 63

I think that he just wants to have the smallest Docker package possible.

I don't know if there is another goal.

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